This paper explores organisational resistance to more comprehensive sustainability reporting in the form of ecological footprinting. On the basis of a series of interviews with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Managers in the UK, a number of barriers were identified for ecological footprinting at the organisational level: the cost and resource constraints involved; the perceived low utility of the ecological footprint in helping to manage key organisational impacts; and a concern that the ecological footprint would not show the 'right picture'. These constraints, which constitute different manifestations of a business case, provide evidence for the limits which the business case imposes on corporate responsibility and accountability.