*Review* **Review of Possibilities for Evaluating the Performance of an Organization in the Aspect of Greenness**

**Ilona Skaˇckauskiene \* and Juliana Smirnova ˙**

Department of Management, Faculty of Business Management, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Sauletekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania ˙

**\*** Correspondence: ilona.skackauskiene@vilniustech.lt

**Abstract:** Due to the increasing relevance and importance of sustainable development pursuit, it can be assumed that organizations are striving to develop in a green direction. This is not only related to raising awareness of modern society but also to legal regulation and strategic documents for achieving the goals of sustainable development at the international level, especially affecting certain fields of activity such as energy or manufacturing. It is noticed that there is still a lack of definition in the scientific literature of what kind of organization is considered green. Therefore, it is appropriate to create a green organization benchmark against which organizations can assess their current level of greenness and identify areas for improvement. This research aimed to choose the most suitable approach for developing a green organization benchmark by examining the methods for evaluating an organization's performance in terms of greenness according to defined attributes. Applying the methods of systematic and comparative analysis of scientific literature and strategic documents, content analysis, grouping, and synthesis, it was determined that the approach of resources of an organization can be considered the most suitable for creating a green organization benchmark. However, it is reasonable to supplement it with an evaluation of external environmental factors.

**Keywords:** green organization; performance evaluation; sustainable development goals; resources; value chain; management functions

**1. Introduction**

In the modern world, global society is increasingly focused on the pursuit of sustainable development. This is evidenced by the active involvement of public figures, such as Greta Thunberg and James Hansen, and organizations of global significance such as the OECD and the UN, as well as countries around the world, in tackling the challenges of economic development, social welfare, and environmental quality. The importance and relevance of the pursuit of sustainable development are further supported by a number of strategic documents and directives at the international level, such as the European Green Deal, the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the "From Field to Table" strategy, the European Climate Pact, the European Climate Law, the European Industrial Strategy, GreenComp: European Competence Framework for Sustainable Development, and others. In 2015, the UN approved the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 [1], which sets 17 Sustainable Development Goals, covering the areas of improving the social environment, economic development, environmental protection, and cooperation. All UN member states are committed to implementing these goals [2]. It can be stated that mentioned strategic documents and directives especially affect certain fields of activity, such as energy or manufacturing, where organizations are directly related to net-zero global commitments, that means cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests [3]. According to [3], the energy sector is the source of around three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions today and holds the key to averting the worst effects of climate

#### **Citation:** Skaˇckauskiene, I.; ˙

Smirnova, J. Review of Possibilities for Evaluating the Performance of an Organization in the Aspect of Greenness. *Energies* **2022**, *15*, 6947. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15196947

Academic Editor: Carlo Roselli

Received: 25 August 2022 Accepted: 19 September 2022 Published: 22 September 2022

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change. Replacing polluting coal, gas, and oil-fired power with energy from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, would dramatically reduce carbon emissions [3]. The energy sector is responsible for more than 75% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions, so increasing the share of renewable energy across the different sectors of the economy is therefore a key building block to reach the EU's energy and climate objectives of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% (compared to 1990) by 2030 and becoming a climate neutral continent by 2050 [4]. The relevance of the pursuit of sustainable development is also confirmed by the active localization of international strategic documents at the national level. For example, based on the set of recommendations for Sustainable Development Goals [2], the implementation of the sustainable development goals in Lithuania at the national level is ensured by legal regulatory measures and at least 52 strategic documents, which include national-level strategies, development and prevention action programs, institutional plans, and recommendatory guidelines. The sheer volume and content of such documents suggest that the implementation of the sustainable development goals should be considered high priority when determining the direction of legal regulation and state policy-making. It should be noted that both the instructions of strategic documents and legal regulatory measures, as well as the growing awareness of people's resolve to pursue the sustainable development goals, influence the aspirations of modern organizations to transform themselves toward the implementation of sustainable development priorities [5–7]. It is noted that green organizations can be considered as one of the measures to achieve the sustainable development goals [8]. Organizations' willingness to develop in a green direction is stimulated not only by the organization's own pursuit of sustainable development, but also by certain benefits, such as increasing the organization's competitive advantage [9,10] and a positive impact on operational profitability [9,11]. Although much scientific research is currently devoted to the development of organizations in a green direction, it is noticeable that there is still a lack of definition of what kind of organization is considered as green [12,13]. It can be noted that topic of green organization is not still widely discussed in the scientific literature. Search for the studies on the topic was conducted among Scopus and Web of Science scientific databases using keywords "green organization" OR "green organisation" OR "green company" since 1990 (All fields). The search on the Scopus database resulted into 37 publications on the topic since 1990. The search on the Web of Science Core Collection database resulted into 41 publications on the topic since 1992. Search results in both databases show growth of publications on the topic since 2017 (see Figure 1).

**Figure 1.** Publications on the topic in the Scopus (**left**) and Web of Science (**right**) databases since the year 1990 (source: Scopus and Web of Science search analysis tools).

To compare with, other search was conducted in order to analyze the number of publications with keyword "green" in the field of social (and closely related) sciences since 1990. The search on the Scopus database (Subject Area: Social Sciences) resulted into 16,028 publications on the topic. The search on the Web of Science Core Collection database (Web of Science Categories: Economics or Business or Business Finance or Social Sciences Interdisciplinary or Management) resulted into 5839 publications on the topic. It is noticed that term green is used by the scholars defining different areas of organization's performance. It can be assumed that there is a lack of constant studies of an organization as a whole in the aspect of greenness. While analyzing the research made on the level of greenness of the organization in the scientific literature it is noticed that most of the research focuses on the more detailed aspect of the greenness of certain elements of the organization or on increasing the greenness, and lacks a systematic approach to the interrelationships of these elements with other elements of the organization [14,15]. According to previous research [8,15] on the topic of green organization done by the authors of this review, it can be assumed that there is a need for a tool that can be used by organizations to assess their current situation in terms of greenness and to determine developmental directions. Therefore, it is reasonable to create a green organization benchmark against which organizations can assess their current level of greenness and identify areas for improvement. It is also noticed by the authors of this review that the topic of green organization from perspective of creation of green organization benchmark is not very studied by scholars yet. Thus, guidelines for the development of green organization benchmark are not provided in the scientific literature. After studying a number of scientific literature sources authors of this review decided to develop green organization's benchmark by evaluating the performance of an organization in terms of greenness. For that purpose, it is first necessary to choose the most suitable approach for evaluating performance of an organization in order to create a green organization benchmark, which would be applicable for organizations with different fields of activity (energy, manufacture, services, etc.). The most suitable approach chosen for evaluation of performance of an organization in terms of greenness will be used as a basis for further creation of a green organization benchmark and its approval in companies will be conducted as a follow-up to this study in the future.

The purpose of the research is to examine the methods of evaluating performance of an organization, to determine their potential in the terms of ability to evaluate performance of an organization from the aspect of greenness and to choose the most suitable one for creating a benchmark.

Objectives of the research:


The following methods were used for the research: systematic and comparative analysis of scientific literature and strategic documents, content analysis, grouping, and synthesis.
