The Institutionalization of Environmental Concerns

We offer an account of the process of“greening,” exploring how an environmental management tool becomes embedded in organizational rhetoric and practice. This is depicted as a process of translation in which the “original” tool is transformed to fit the context. Theoretically, we seek to complement new institutional theory by providing an understanding of the institutionalization of environmental concerns in organizations. Sensemaking and actor-network theories are used to conceptualize the process of institutionalization as it goes on inside organizations. The empirical basis is a study of the introduction of green accounting in a public hospital in Denmark.