This article presents a study of the discourse on the development of the two main business conglomerates in the Chilean forestry sector, the Paper and Cardboard Manufacturing Company (cmpc) and Empresas Arauco (Arauco). Our objective is to describe the discourse to legitimize the forestry sector and its ideological operations based on the structure, meaning and transformation of the concept of development. The documents show the interest of the firms in increasing their social legitimacy to ensure their continuity. The concept of sustainable development makes it possible to discursively link economic development and productive activity with social development and environmental balance, thereby concealing and/or redefining their tensions. Based on a critical content analysis of the discourse of these firms, we conclude that they discursively construct a representation of development as sustainable development and, to a lesser extent, as the creation of shared value.