A Three-Dimensional Discourse Analysis of SDGs Reports and Apple’s Environmental Progress Reports: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

The importance of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is recognized globally. Analyzing sustainable development reports is a focus in quantitative linguistics. This study investigates the relationship between SDGs and corporate environmental progress reports using corpus-based and critical discourse analysis (CDA) methods. The analysis is conducted on SDGs Reports (SDGRs) and Apple's Environmental Progress Reports (AEPRs) from 2015 to 2022. Fairclough's three-dimensional analysis model is employed. The study examines high-frequency verbs, nouns, modal verbs, and outcomes of topic modeling. It explores discourse and social practices in the reports, highlighting companies' proactive approach to SDGs. The paper introduces new research perspectives and methodologies to linguistics and discourse analysis.