Exploring Sustainability Practices and Reporting at Musgrave Group: A Case Study of an Irish Private Company.

The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a case study of a large Irish company, Musgrave Group, which has been engaged in sustainability practices and reporting since the late 1990s. In doing so the paper provides an in-depth account firstly of the internal motivations for the company’s engagement with sustainability practices and reporting and secondly of the process through which the sustainability practice gained internal support and began to be integrated into the day to day activities of the company. The case study of the company involved a series of interviews with key participants in the sustainability process and documentary analysis. The contribution of the paper is twofold. Firstly it provides insight into the internal factors motivating the company’s engagement in sustainability practices and reporting. Secondly it examines the legitimating strategies which have helped the process to gain internal legitimacy leading to the (imperfect) integration of the process into the decision making processes and the day to day activities of the company.