Paper Short Abstract:

The paper follows the social life of sustainability regulations by focusing on experts who work to ensure compliance. How do people working to improve industries from the inside conceptualise their agency, parameters of transformation, and contribution of regulation to aide their cause?

Paper Abstract:

Metals are key building blocks for technologies of energy capture and storage amid decarbonisation and transition towards renewable energy. Yet mining, refining, and recycling have histories of damaging the environment worldwide, as well as influencing and relying on lax environmental regulations. It is in this context that metal markets herald sustainability as a principal and touted value amid the sector’s declared aims to renew social license and avoid past mistakes. The fieldwork takes place in 2023-4 as discussions about sustainability are being energised by the EU’s adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) considered a significant step-up from previous efforts. The paper is based on participant observation in metal market conferences, interviews with London-based commodity analysts and investors, and following sustainability experts who promote compliance with this and other prospective regulations of similar type through education and offering services. It focuses on how regulation is socialised by creating new social roles - people hired in-house or as companies to ensure compliance. This paper looks at how they conceptualise and strategise against one of the common sources of criticism, namely that sustainability efforts and reporting regulations represent greenwashing - a way for companies to define signifiers such as “sustainability" according to their interests - rather than a fundamental shift in values that center the environment.