Sustainability objects as performative definitions of sustainability: The case of food waste-based biogas and biofertilizers

Abstract

This article introduces the notion of sustainability objects to label objects that come with a claim to promote a more sustainable mode of living. The purpose is to show that organizations that develop such objects contribute to defining sustainability. A case study of the development of a food waste-based biogas and biofertilizers production facility serves as empirical example of sustainability objects development. The analysis demonstrates that this development has involved situating biogas and biofertilizers socially, entangling them in nets of relations and endowing them with an agency of their own. The study also shows that developing sustainability objects entails constructing performative definitions of sustainability. With sustainability objects embodying local definitions of sustainability, the success or failure of sustainability objects is also the success or failure of these definitions. Asking why sustainability objects gain or lose ground is therefore suggested as a way to understand the state and nature of sustainability transition.