Focusing on the development process of an environmental management control system (EMCS) in a large Scandinavian logistics company, this study sets out to explore the shifting relationship between control over, based on system design, and control in situ, based on the individual employee’s experience, experimentation, professionalism, transparency and sustainability competence. Using the theoretical framework of enabling–coercive bureaucracy [Adler, P. S. and Borys, B. 1996. Two types of bureaucracy: enabling and coercive. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41(4), 61-89], it asks: In which ways are employees constructed as controlling subjects or objects of control in an environmental management control system context? By placing more emphasis on the role of individual actors beyond managerial tiers, it responds to both empirical and theoretical gaps as a baseline to move forward from. This is deemed necessary in order to bridge the distinction between system design and use for environmentally sustainable futures that extend beyond organisational and generational borders.