Lost in The Grocery Aisle: Navigating the challenges of food waste management through performance measurement systems and sensemaking

Abstract: This paper aims to uncover how Sustainability Performance Measurement Systems (SPMS), and more specifically KPIs, can be used as tools to make sense of the challenges inherent to sustainability management, within the specific empirical setting of food waste. Through a case study based on a global food retailer in Sweden, we aim to comprehend how employees use food waste KPIs to make sense of the challenges inherent to food waste management. We base our research on analytical concepts that merge two areas of the literature: research on organizational sensemaking, and studies investigating the function of accounting in sustainability decision-making. Our study makes three key contributions: (1) highlighting the role of sensemaking in shaping how employees manage trade-offs and work with KPIs, (2) emphasizing KPIs as enablers for addressing food waste management complexities, and (3) underscoring the significance of informal and formal sensegiving mechanisms to foster collective sensemaking. While KPIs can help employees comprehend the effects of their actions on food waste, our study also reveals their limitations and the importance of sensegiving to prioritize food waste reduction activities.