Corporate sustainability study shows public sector leads on climate change

University of Queensland Business School research shows Government Owned Corporations (GOCs) are more aware of climate change as a corporate sustainability issue than private organisations.

PhD students Sally Russell and Nardia Haigh worked with UQ Business School academic Dr Andrew Griffiths to investigate how corporate sustainability is understood by senior staff of GOCs, public sector, and private sector organisations.

Ms Haigh said 80 per cent of GOC respondents taking part in the preliminary study recognised climate change as a corporate sustainability issue. This was compared to 71 per cent of their public sector colleagues and just 26 per cent of private sector respondents.

“We asked participants a series of questions about corporate sustainability and found that they understood it to be the good management of environmental, social, or economic matters, or the need to manage all of these matters holistically," she said.

“When we analysed the transcripts we also took note of the climate change-related topics raised by interviewees, such as greenhouse gas emissions, global warming, and extreme weather.

“We found a significant difference between GOC, public, and private sector participants regarding whether they associated climate change issues with corporate sustainability or not.”

Dr Griffiths, who is supervising both students, said the results supported and further informed the development of an upcoming executive education course run by UQ Business School in corporate sustainability.

“The results indicate the amount of work that needs to be done to connect corporate sustainability with climate change; and where it needs to be done,” he said.

“The preliminary results will be taken forward into a full study.”

Further information on the UQ Business School executive education course can be found online at
http://www.business.uq.edu.au/executive-education/csst_course/index.phtml.

For more information contact Cathy Stacey, telephone (07) 3365 6179, mobile 0434 074 372, email c.stacey@business.uq.edu.au