Do you have the shirt in green? : A rethorical analysis of H&M's Conscious Actions Sustainability Report

As consumers we want to know from whom we buy, what we buy and the impact the company has on our planet. In recent years there been an increasing number of scandals concerning child labour, dangerous chemicals and falsely labelled meat. A good way for companies to communicate their environmental efforts is to establish a sustainability report, where they describe their work and their impact on our environment. By concentrating on H&M’s sustainability report, as well as conducting a rhetorical analysis, we have been able to focus on the following research questions: Why do companies establish CSR reports? How do companies gain legitimacy through their rhetorical choices? How do companies try to influence recipients’ attitudes to the company? We begin by studying the context, which is of importance when using a rhetorical method and thereby attempt to understand in what situation the text is created. Then we examine the disposition, style and analyze the presented arguments. Subsequently, we found that culture plays a crucial part in understanding why the sustainability reports are written. Companies are subject to increasing pressure from outside communities to take responsibility and adapt to this. The use of ethos arguments and highlighting transparency resulted in that the company increased Its legitimacy. Moreover, the report can also be used as a marketing tool as it clearly communicates the companies’ successful sustainability work. We believe that the sustainability report can be used to gain advantage in crisis communications because it can easily be referred to when confronted with criticism.