Environmental struggles : 'business as usual' budget control technologies versus organisational rhetoric

The research assesses the relationship between budgeting and environmental sustainability within a single organisation. Using a case study of a not-for-profit organisation that had recently embarked on an Environmental Sustainability Strategy with targeted projects, insights are provided into the influences of budgetary practicalities and under-resourced environmental sustainability rhetoric. A Foucauldian approach provides critical reflection on the case organisation’s ‘business as usual’ budgeting approach which is shown to have been dominant. This study demonstrates how budgetary processes acted to impede implementation of an agreed high priority organisational strategy, notwithstanding internal and external stakeholders’ expectations arising from targeted environmental sustainability improvements.