Aligning organisational environmental policy and practice in the Australian coal industry

This study examines how well environmental sustainability policy and practice align in Australian coal mining organisations. Espoused theory, institutional theory, institutional logic and field theory provide the theoretical framework, and Dunphy et al.’s (2003) organisational sustainability scale framed a qualitative, industry-wide case study drawing on a document review of public company sustainability information, an online questionnaire, and in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that organisations do not align their environmental sustainability policies and practices in two ways: (i) companies are aiming for lower standards of environmental performance than those stated in their policies; and (ii) companies are performing at lower levels than their policies stipulate.