Muhammad Akbar Annahl

Unveiling Greenwashing in Indonesia Corporate Sustainability Reports

The project

Akbar’ research explores the greenwashing phenomenon in Indonesia companies’ sustainability reporting. Companies express their contributions to the environmental and biodiversity issues, yet the environmental and biodiversity degradation remains ongoing. Drawing on such conditions, he attempts to critically investigate this phenomenon through accountability lens. Current greenwashing literature emphasised the gap between sustainability reports disclosure and performance, thus, he extends the examination into power dynamics among social actors through discourses and material elements. Indonesia context becomes crucial to be examined due to it is a host for diverse endemic flora and fauna yet encounters environmental and biodiversity deterioration.

His case study research follows the tradition of critical accounting studies. The research consists of two phases, which are documents analysis and fieldwork (i.e. interviews and observations). He attempts to involve various companies’ stakeholders, namely the non-governmental organisations, social movement organisations, communities, and regulatory authorities. The expected findings of the research can suggest to the deliberation of broader stakeholders in sustainability issues and contextualisation of sustainability accounting framework or standards development.

Akbar is supervised by Prof. Kelum Jayasinghe and Dr. Danson Kimani. His doctoral study is funded by Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP). He is a lecturer in the accounting department at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia, and also has research interests in Islamic accounting, finance, and economics.