What We Mean by Tomorrow: Framing the Future of Climate Change in Corporate Discourse

Over the last two decades, CSR reporting practices have intensified due to an increasing interest in communicating corporate efforts and public actions which are ethical and beneficial for society (Breeze, 2013; Catenaccio, 2012). Previous studies in the field of Critical Discourse Studies have tried to investigate the evolution in the framing process of climate change in corporate environmental reporting (Fuoli &and Beelitz, 2023). The discursive construction of the future is an inherent aspect of corporate discourse in defining new operational strategies and missions aimed at reaching sustainability (Bondi, 2016). However, more attention has to be paid to the way in which the future of climate change is framed in corporate discourse.
This article investigates how food and beverage corporations frame the future of climate change in corporate discourse. Drawing on Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies methodologies (Partington et al., 2013) and Framing Analysis (Entman, 1993), this study analyses the frames and discursive strategies employed by food and beverage corporations in the CRClim corpus (2015-2022), a purpose-compiled corpus of corporate texts (7 million words).
The study demonstrates that framing processes reflect corporate commitment to climate change and how they seek to gain social accountability. Therefore, the study sheds light on the underlying rationales and objectives that motivate corporations to prioritise the future in their strategic communications around climate-related issues.