After a decade of critique: neoliberal environmentalism, discourse analysis and the promotion of climate-protecting behaviour in the workplace

- The paper outlines a typological framework to assess neoliberal environmentalism.
- Responses to climate change can include neoliberal and anti-neoliberal approaches.
- Neoliberal discourses dominate in the context of the workplace.
- There is evidence of resistance to neoliberal ideology in the workplace.
- The typological framework could be usefully applied to other cultures and contexts.

In a 2004 special issue of Geoforum, McCarthy and Prudham argued that the connections between neoliberalism and the environment had been underexplored in critical scholarship. In an attempt to address this gap, the special issue reflected on a number of different case studies and set the stage for a decade of analysis and critique. This paper aims to contribute to the increasing body of literature by presenting a detailed theoretical analysis of neoliberal environmentalism and its role in modern society. Specifically, the paper focuses on one particular environmental issue - climate change - and uses it to categorise six discourses that either conform to the principles of neoliberalism (reformist) or reject neoliberal ideas (revolutionary). Drawing on interviews with designated 'climate champions' (individuals who are given responsibility for promoting climate protecting behaviour) in large corporations, the paper then demonstrates how this kind of typological framework might be applied to the analysis of neoliberal environmentalism in the 'real world'. The paper finds that neoliberalism played a very influential role in the promotion of climate protecting behaviour in the workplace. However, there was also some limited evidence of resistance in the form of revolutionary discourses and ideas. Going forwards, the typological framework may provide a valuable analytical tool to assess the dominance and resistance of neoliberal environmentalism in the modern world.