Sustainability reporting in the shipping industry: a critical realist account

Purpose This paper examines how EU-listed shipping companies narrate their sustainability impact through corporate sustainability reports. Using a critical realist ontology, it investigates how companies articulate the structures that shape their sustainability practices, the actions they undertake in response to these structures and the organisational experiences that inform such actions. This study aims to demonstrate how sustainability reporting operates performatively, reproducing or transforming industry structures during a period of major regulatory transition. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts an interpretive qualitative analysis of sustainability reports issued in 2024 (pertaining to 2023) by shipping companies listed on European stock markets. Reports were selected based on industry classification and the presence of standalone sustainability disclosures or integrated reporting. All documents were examined holistically and abductively, and narrative segments were interpreted through the tripartite critical realist ontology of the real (structures), the actual (actions) and the empirical (experiences). The risk–return–impact (RRI) model served as an analytical lens to explore how financial and sustainability considerations are interwoven in corporate narratives. Findings The analysis reveals that sustainability reports construct a layered account of sustainability transition in shipping. Companies present structural conditions − such as climate regulation, technological change, capital market pressures and stakeholder expectations − as shaping their sustainability risks and opportunities. They describe actions that either reproduce existing structures (e.g. compliance-driven investments) or seek to transform them (e.g. industry alliances, technological innovation, advocacy). Organisational experiences expressed in the reports highlight identity, commitment, trust and responsibility, indicating how companies make sense of structural pressures and position themselves as agents of change. Across reports, financial and sustainability considerations are tightly intertwined, reflecting the performative interplay of risk, return and impact. Originality/value This paper introduces critical realism as a metatheoretical framework for analysing sustainability reporting, offering a novel account of how structures, actions and experiences are narrated within corporate disclosures. It also demonstrates the usefulness of the RRI model as a lens for examining how financial and sustainability logics intersect. By focusing on the shipping industry at a pivotal regulatory moment, this study expands sustainability accounting scholarship with a theoretically grounded explanation of the performativity of sustainability reporting.