CORPORATIVISMO EM TONS DE VERDE: A SUSTENTABILIDADE COMO ENCENAÇÃO RETÓRICA

The rhetoric of sustainability has become a recurring device in the communication strategies of large corporations which, by adopting a discursive aesthetic centered on environmental responsibility, seek to legitimize practices often disconnected from an actual commitment to the environment. This instrumentalization of sustainable discourse reveals itself as a form of performance, in which ecological values are used as ornamentation to reinforce the public image of companies without substantial transformation in their productive models. In this scenario, green marketing functions as a mechanism of symbolic persuasion, creating an appearance of environmental commitment that often conceals the maintenance of predatory logics. Thus, sustainability ceases to represent an ethical guideline and becomes a rhetorical resource functional to capital, being used to deflect criticism, attract consumers, and meet minimal regulatory demands. A critical analysis of this corporate practice allows an understanding of the boundaries between rhetoric and action, highlighting the need to differentiate genuine sustainable practices from merely cosmetic initiatives. Ecological performativity, in this context, reveals a disconnect between discourse and reality, compromising the credibility of the environmental actions promoted. In this way, it becomes imperative to reflect on the risks of simulated sustainability which, instead of contributing to environmental preservation, serves to perpetuate unsustainable economic models under the guise of responsibility. The problematization of the strategic use of sustainability points to the urgency of mechanisms for critical evaluation, transparency, and corporate accountability regarding their real environmental impacts. Keywords: Sustainability. Rhetoric. Corporatism.