ECOLINGUISTIC FRAMING IN KENYAN CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTS

Abstract

Scholarly evidence shows that ecolinguistic studies in Kenya have concentrated on literary texts, indigenous knowledge, and toponymy, with little attention to corporate environmental communications. The purpose of this article was to examine the ecolinguistic framing of corporate environmental reports. The analysis was conducted using a mixed method design, focusing on reports disseminated by corporations and interpreted within the tenets of the ecological framework by Stibbe (2015). Data were collected using the corpus tool, AntConc (version 4.3.2) software for quantitative linguistic data, combined with qualitative observation methods and content analysis. A purposive sample of 36 environmental reports from a target population of 182 reports was selected. The inclusion criteria focused on reports published by corporations listed in the Nairobi Securities Exchange operating in diverse sectors of the economy between 2020 and 2024. The findings revealed that environmental concerns were framed as economic value, an obligation, collective effort, legality, a scientific concept, and crisis, besides being metaphorically understood as a journey and a battle. The study concluded that despite stakeholders' noble aim to disseminate beneficial discourses through environmental corporate communications and other engagements, some of the emergent frames in the corporate reports can be destructive. Significantly, the findings imply that environmental corporate communications could enhance our understanding of the nexus between language and the physical environment.