IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i23p10628-d1536468.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Meta-Indicator for the Assessment of Misleading Sustainability Claims

Author

Listed:
  • Georgia Parastatidou

    (Department of Management Science and Technology, Democritus University of Thrace, 65404 Kavala, Greece)

  • Vassilios Chatzis

    (Department of Management Science and Technology, Democritus University of Thrace, 65404 Kavala, Greece)

Abstract

In order to address environmental and climate change in a sustainable manner, it is necessary for corporations to make commitments in accordance with sustainable principles, which can be communicated through the use of indicators. Many indicator-based sustainability assessments neglect the supply chain stages by reporting results with incomplete and misleading information. Indicators are sometimes manipulated to the benefit of companies, a strategy known as “greenwashing”. One method of misleading is to transfer the non-sustainable activities of one company to other related companies. With such practices, the question of how to measure sustainability remains unclear. This paper proposes and defines the sustainability meta-indicator ( S m I ) which can serve as a tool for the assessment of misleading sustainability claims. Its value depends on the sustainability indicators of the other collaborating companies where the company in question pays money, and the corresponding amount of paid money. The results of using S m I on synthetic data demonstrate that the proposed meta-indicator facilitates the evaluation of misleading sustainability claims. The aim of the S m I is to satisfy consumers’ need for information about the sustainability of a company’s products or services. In addition, it can be used as a communication mechanism to enhance the value of companies and support new partnerships and business strategies. For policymakers, this meta-indicator serves as a tool to support measures against misinformation and misleading consumers.

Suggested Citation

  • Georgia Parastatidou & Vassilios Chatzis, 2024. "A Meta-Indicator for the Assessment of Misleading Sustainability Claims," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10628-:d:1536468
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10628/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/23/10628/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bohringer, Christoph & Jochem, Patrick E.P., 2007. "Measuring the immeasurable -- A survey of sustainability indices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 1-8, June.
    2. Eun-Hee Kim & Thomas P. Lyon, 2015. "Greenwash vs. Brownwash: Exaggeration and Undue Modesty in Corporate Sustainability Disclosure," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 705-723, June.
    3. Shoufeng Cao & Henry Xu & Kim P. Bryceson, 2023. "Blockchain Traceability for Sustainability Communication in Food Supply Chains: An Architectural Framework, Design Pathway and Considerations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-21, September.
    4. Agnieszka Bezat-Jarzębowska & Stephanie Krieger-Güss & Sebastian Jarzębowski & Brigitte Petersen, 2024. "Integration of the Food Supply Chain as a Driver of Sustainability: A Conceptual Framework," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-20, August.
    5. Xiuju Feng & Yunchen Zheng & Woraphon Yamaka & Jianxu Liu, 2024. "How Does Agricultural Green Transformation Improve Residents’ Health? Empirical Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-15, July.
    6. Steliana Rodino & Ruxandra Pop & Cristina Sterie & Andreea Giuca & Eduard Dumitru, 2023. "Developing an Evaluation Framework for Circular Agriculture: A Pathway to Sustainable Farming," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-24, October.
    7. Batoul Modarress-Fathi & Al Ansari & Alexander Ansari, 2023. "Examining Sustainability Alignment of Supplier Selection Criteria during Industrial Revolutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-19, November.
    8. Dario Caro & Fabio Sporchia & Marta Antonelli & Alessandro Galli, 2023. "Beyond the IPCC for Food: An Overarching Framework for Food Systems Sustainability Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-10, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Povellato, Andrea & Bodini, Antonella & Longhitano, Davide & Scardera, Alfonso, 2012. "Assessing farm sustainability. An application with the Italian FADN sample," 2012 First Congress, June 4-5, 2012, Trento, Italy 124381, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA).
    2. Cynthia H. Stahl, 2014. "Out of the Land of Oz: the importance of tackling wicked environmental problems without taming them," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 473-477, December.
    3. Luo, Lianfa & Cheng, Zhiming & Ye, Qingqing & Cheng, Yanjun & Smyth, Russell & Yang, Zhiqing & Zhang, Le, 2024. "Nonmonetary awards and innovation: Evidence from winning China's Top Brand Contest," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    4. Pruthiranjan Dwibedi & Debasis Pahi & Antarjyami Sahu, 2024. "Mapping the landscape of environmental, social and governance research: A bibliometric analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(5), pages 3745-3767, September.
    5. Francesca Bernini & Fabio La Rosa, 2024. "Research in the greenwashing field: concepts, theories, and potential impacts on economic and social value," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(2), pages 405-444, June.
    6. Shon R. Hiatt & Jake B. Grandy & Brandon H. Lee, 2015. "Organizational Responses to Public and Private Politics: An Analysis of Climate Change Activists and U.S. Oil and Gas Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1769-1786, December.
    7. Nisreen Salti & Jad Chaaban & Alexandra Irani & Rima Al Mokdad, 2021. "A Multi-Dimensional Measure of Well-being among Youth: The Case of Palestinian Refugee Youth in Lebanon," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(1), pages 1-34, February.
    8. Bingler, Julia Anna & Kraus, Mathias & Leippold, Markus & Webersinke, Nicolas, 2024. "How cheap talk in climate disclosures relates to climate initiatives, corporate emissions, and reputation risk," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    9. Wei Li & Weining Li & Veikko Seppänen & Timo Koivumäki, 2022. "How and when does perceived greenwashing affect employees' job performance? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1722-1735, September.
    10. Yongbo Sun & Binbin Shi, 2022. "Impact of Greenwashing Perception on Consumers’ Green Purchasing Intentions: A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-15, September.
    11. Dalal Aassouli & Ayodele Akande & Ray Jureidini, 2023. "Comparative Analysis of Sustainable Food Governance and the Alignment of Food Security Policies to Sustainable Development: A Case Study of OIC Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-27, November.
    12. Daniela Cristina Momete & Manuel Mihail Momete, 2021. "Map and Track the Performance in Education for Sustainable Development across the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-14, November.
    13. Valentina Marano & Steve Sauerwald & Marc Essen, 2022. "The influence of culture on the relationship between women directors and corporate social performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(7), pages 1315-1342, September.
    14. Duck Bong Kim, 2019. "An approach for composing predictive models from disparate knowledge sources in smart manufacturing environments," Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 1999-2012, April.
    15. Federica Nieri & Luciano Ciravegna & Ruth V. Aguilera & Elisa Giuliani, 2019. "Larger, more internationalized, better behaved? A configurational study of em erging market multinational enterprises' involvement in corporate wrongdoing," Discussion Papers 2019/255, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    16. Daniela C. Momete, 2016. "Building a Sustainable Healthcare Model: A Cross-Country Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Ernest Reig‐Martínez & José A. Gómez‐Limón & Andrés J. Picazo‐Tadeo, 2011. "Ranking farms with a composite indicator of sustainability," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 42(5), pages 561-575, September.
    18. Mingyue Xie & Suning Zhao & Kun Lv, 2024. "The Impact of Green Finance and Financial Technology on Regional Green Energy Technological Innovation Based on the Dual Machine Learning and Spatial Econometric Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-27, May.
    19. Zola Berger‐Schmitz & Douglas George & Cameron Hindal & Richard Perkins & Maria Travaille, 2023. "What explains firms' net zero adoption, strategy and response?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5583-5601, December.
    20. Franks, Jeremy & Frater, Poppy, 2013. "Measuring agricultural sustainability at the farm-level: A pragmatic approach," International Journal of Agricultural Management, Institute of Agricultural Management, vol. 2(4), pages 1-19, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:23:p:10628-:d:1536468. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.