The Commensuration of Sustainability Reporting and the Crowding out of Morality

Drawing on extensive case study evidence, this study unpacks sustainability reporting’s evolution from a moral values-based practice towards a financialized value-based one. We argue that this transition can be seen as a commensuration project and we examine the dynamics of this process. We find that increased levels of commensuration have moved sustainability reporting away from a focus on moral responsibility (i.e. ‘doing the right thing’) to a focus on strategic value creation for the firm. We theorize this crowding out of morality as a process of amoralization supported by the rigid cognitive framing of social and environmental issues (objectification) and the monetized coordination of relevant social interactions (marketization). We outline implications of our analysis for the scholarly debate on sustainability reporting and commensuration

Nutritional intake and gastro-intestinal symptoms in critically ill COVID-19 patients

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Critically ill COVID-19 patients seem hypermetabolic and difficult to feed enterally, due to gastro-intestinal (GI) symptoms such as high gastric residual volumes (GRV) and diarrhea. Our aim was to describe the association of nutritional intake and GI symptoms during first 14 days of ICU admission. METHODS: Observational study including critically ill adult COVID-19 patients. Data on nutritional intake (enteral nutrition (EN) or parenteral nutrition) and GI symptoms were collected during 14 days after ICU admission. Target energy and protein feeding goals were calculated conform ESPEN guidelines. GI symptoms included GRV (ml/d), vomiting, abdominal distension and faeces (ml/d). High GRV’s were classified as ≥2 times ≥150 ml/d and diarrhea as Bristol stool chart ≥6. GI symptoms were defined as mild if at least one symptom occurred and as moderate when ≥2 symptoms occurred. Acute gastrointestinal injury (AGI) grades of III were classified as GI dysfunction and grades of IV were considered as GI failure with severe impact on distant organs. Linear mixed model analysis was performed to explore the development of nutritional intake and GI symptoms over time at day (D) 0,4,10 & 14. RESULTS: 150 patients were included (75% male; median age 64 years [IQR 54-70]). BMI upon admission was 28 kg/m(2) [IQR 25-33], of which 43% obese (BMI>30 kg/m(2)). Most patients received EN during admission (98% D4; 96% D10-14). Mean energy goals increased from 87% at D4 to 93% D10-14 and protein goals (g/kg) were increasingly achieved during admission (84% D4; 93% D10-14). Presence of moderate GI symptoms decreased (10% DO; 6% D4-10; 5% D14), reversely mild GI symptoms increased. Occurrence of GI dysfunction fluctuated (1% D0; 18% D4; 12% D10; 8% D14) and none of patients developed grade IV GI failure. Development of high GRV fluctuated (5% D0; 23% D4; 14% D10; 8% D14) and occurrence of diarrhea slightly increased during admission (5% D0; 22% D4; 25% D10; 27% D14). Linear mixed models showed only an association between AGI grades III and lower protein intake at day 10 (p=0.020). CONCLUSION: Occurrence of GI symptoms was limited and seems no major barrier for EN in our group of critically COVID-19 patients. Nutritional intake was just below requirements during the first 14 days of ICU admission. The effect on nutritional status remains to be studied

Association between fat-free mass and survival in critically ill patients with COVID-19:A prospective cohort study

Background: Most critically ill patients with COVID-19 experience malnutrition and weight loss associated with negative clinical outcomes. Our primary aim was to assess body composition during acute and late phase of illness in these patients in relation to clinical outcome and secondary to tailored nutrition support. Methods: This prospective cohort study included adult critically ill patients with COVID-19. Body composition (fat-free mass [FFM] [exposure of interest], fat mass [FM], skeletal muscle mass [SMM], and phase angle [PA]) was determined with multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analyses in the acute and late phase. Nutrition support data were collected simultaneously. Clinical outcome was defined as intensive care unit (ICU) survival (primary outcome) and 30–90 days thereafter, duration of mechanical ventilation, and length of ICU stay and length of hospital stay (LOS). Nonparametric tests and regression analyses were performed. Results: We included 70 patients (73% male, median age 60 years). Upon admission, median BMI was 30 kg/m 2, 54% had obesity (BMI &gt; 30 kg/m 2). Median weight change during ICU stay was −3 kg: +3 kg FM and −6 kg FFM (−4 kg SMM). Body composition changed significantly (P &lt; 0.001). Regarding clinical outcome, only low PA was associated with prolonged LOS (odds ratio = 0.83, 95% CI = 0.72–0.96; P = 0.015). Patients with optimal protein intake (&gt;80%) during acute phase maintained significantly more FFM (2.7 kg, P = 0.047) in the late phase compared with patients who received &lt;80%. Conclusion: FFM decreased significantly during acute and late phase of illness, but we observed no association with ICU survival. Only low PA was associated with prolonged LOS. FFM wasting likely occurred because of disease severity and immobility.</p

Hail the Snail: Hegemonic Struggles in the Slow Food Movement

This paper explores how new institutional fields are established and extended. We argue that they are created by social movements engaging in hegemonic struggles and which develop social movement strategies, articulate discourses and construct nodal points. We examine how this process played out during the creation and development of the Slow Food movement. We argue that the positioning of Slow Food as a new field was based particularly on using multiple strategies, increasing the stock of floating signifiers, and abstracting the nodal points used. This mobilized new actors and enabled a more extensive collective identity which allowed the movement to progress, extend, and elevate the field of Slow Food. The field of Slow Food was transformed from appealing only to gastronomes to becoming a broader field that encompassed social justice activists and environmentalists. This study contributes to the existing literature on field formation, the role of social movements in this process, and political dynamics within social movements. We focus on the importance of hegemony in the institutional processes around field formation by drawing out how Slow Food created a field through the forging of hegemonic links among a range of disparate actors

Sustainability reporting in the Netherlands : a case of institutionalisation, commensuration and justification

In this dissertation I offer explanations for how sustainability reporting has developed from a peripheral practice into a more widely accepted and adopted one. I qualitatively analyse the history of sustainability reporting over the last 25 years by focusing on the Dutch sustainability reporting field. I draw on a combination of 94 semi-structured interviews and a collection of secondary data sources. Overall I question the organisation-centric, static, ahistorical and instrumental accounts that explain sustainability reporting based on a business case, managing legitimacy or stakeholder expectations. Instead, I draw on, and contribute to, various literatures (most notably institutional entrepreneurship, the garbage can model, commensuration and sociology of worth) to explain the more dynamic and historical aspects of sustainability reporting as a complex practice developing in a pluralistic institutional environment. First, I find that sustainability reporting’s institutionalisation was a muddled process in which serendipity played an important role in enabling collective action of distributed actors. I contribute to the institutional entrepreneurship literature by questioning the role of the heroic individual institutional entrepreneur endowed with a great deal of strategic agency. Instead, I draw on insights from the garbage can model and nuance these assumptions by stipulating the enabling role of historical contingencies and the collective processes involved in enacting these. Second, my study adds to our understanding of the dynamics of commensuration. I find that commensuration transformed sustainability reporting from a values-based to a value-based practice while it also changed from environmental to triple bottom line to integrated reporting. I chart various dimensions of commensuration and explain the process driving the development of these dimensions. In particular, shifts in the dominant dimensions of commensuration over time can be explained by emerging pathologies that drive the development of the succeeding phase. These pathologies emerge because of instances of means-ends disconnection, professional insulation and cultural contestation. Third, I analyse integrated reporting and focus on the possibility of, and impediments to, reconciling its multiple logics of valuation, or orders of worth, in order to forge a legitimate compromise. I find that a successful compromise based on finding a common interest, avoiding clarification and maintaining ambiguity is problematic to attain as integrated reporting risks being captured by investors and accountants privileging a market/industrial worth at the expense of a civic/green worth. This leads to a local private arrangement rather than a durable legitimate compromise. This contributes to unpacking the process through which a complex new accounting practice in a pluralistic environment gains legitimacy. In addition to these respective contributions, more generally I show how sustainability reporting is neither just a corporate smokescreen nor a panacea for corporate sustainability. It is a practice that is a consequence of its modern rational environment, yet at the same time constitutive of this very institutional environment as it helps to further elaborate and institutionalise sustainability (reporting) as an economy entity. Fully realising and acting upon the implications of this pivotal role of an accounting practice such as sustainability reporting may help policy makers and practitioners move towards a more sustainable world

Managing tensions in sustainable business models: Exploring instrumental and integrative strategies

This study empirically examines tensions around business model innovations for sustainability and the strategies that organizations employ to manage these tensions. A central conjecture of the study is that in order to successfully manage sustainable business models, firms need to confront sustainability's oftentimes paradoxical tensions. The research examined 30 firms that had sought to make business model innovations for sustainability; the results suggest that one group of organizations was shy of embracing these tensions and relied primarily on an instrumental or narrow ‘business case’ approach, viewing sustainability as an “either/or” scenario. However, another group of firms was aiming to work through these tensions by utilizing more paradoxical or integrative strategies, thus aiming for a “both/and” scenario. This group found it easier to manage their sustainable business models. The results highlight how applying the lens of paradox can help organizations to make sense of the complexity of sustainability; paradoxical thinking can help to reduce tensions, ambiguity and uncertainty and improve the management of complex sustainability challenges. In addition to their practical relevance, the findings have implications for both the literature on sustainable business models and the emerging paradox perspective on corporate sustainability

Social Movements

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe