How readable are environmental policy statements? An exploratory study within the IT industry

Abstract

Environmental policy statements are nowadays fairly ubiquitous, particularly among large organizations. Such statements continue to be seen as an important element in the sustainability initiatives of organizations. However, if they are to have a chance of achieving the desired positive outcomes that those in their favor highlight, they must first be readable and comprehensible to the targeted stakeholders. To investigate the readability of environmental policy statements of IT companies, the individual environmental policy statements of Information Technology companies were collected. A readability calculation tool was then employed to assess the readability of each of these environmental policy statements. Results are reported, and the implications are considered, while limitations are noted and directions for future research are identified.