**1. Introduction**

Environmental management has recently become a major field of management [1]. In the contemporary business environment, sustainable companies succeed in the market, as they are able to secure resources and develop competencies to meet the challenges of environmental limitations [2]. Consequently, balance should be maintained amongeconomic, social, and environmental goals [3]. The motives behind the greening of economic activities are the growth in the awareness of and the responsibility for the conditions of the natural environment, the reinforcement of provisions on environmental protection, and the growing demand for ecological products [4].

Intellectual capital has recently come to the forefront as part of the search for methods thatimprovecorporate environmental effectiveness [5,6]. Intangible assets are commonly considered to be competitive advantages and as such may effectively stimulate achievement of sustainable corporate goals [7,8]. Despite diverse publications focusing on intellectual

**Citation:** Bombiak, E. Green Intellectual Capital as a Support for Corporate Environmental Development—Polish Company Experience. *Energies* **2022**, *15*, 3004. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15093004

Academic Editors: Viktor Koval, Dzintra Atstaja and Ilona Skaˇckauskiene˙

Received: 19 March 2022 Accepted: 18 April 2022 Published: 20 April 2022

**Publisher's Note:** MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

**Copyright:** © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

capital (IC), its full potential for building sustainable organizations has not yet been 'unlocked'. This is demonstrated by a small number of studies on green intellectual capital (GIC) [9–11]. The prime focus of research is on the impact of IC on corporate performance and competitiveness. However, the relationship between green intellectual capital and sustainable development is under-investigated [12]. The limited availability of publications addressing the issue of green intellectual capital leadsone to assume that the concept is unknown, given the Polish conditions. This fact inspired the author to research the implementation of practices supporting GIC accumulation in young Polish enterprises.

A review of the literature revealed a gap in the field of empirical research on the impact assessment of GIC on the environmental development of Polish enterprises. The author intended to bridge the gap, at least to some extent.

The objective of this research article was to assess the rate of use of practices oriented at GIC formation to support corporate environmental development and establish a relationship between the impact assessments of individual practices leading to GIC accumulation and their implementation in enterprises. The analysis includes an identification of practices oriented at GIC formation and prioritization according to the environmentaldevelopmentimpact of anorganization.

In the course of the analyses, the author addressed the following research questions:


This research article contributes to the source literature by diagnosing a gap associated with GIC use as a tool for building sustainable enterprises. The results of the research may motivate managers to take corrective actions in the management process. In the author's opinion, the findings of the research may stimulate interest in GIC development and extend the scope of application of GIC-fostering practices to organizations operating in the energy sector. The energy sector now faces enormous challenges presented by a growing energy demand. At the same time, the EU and other countries around the world are introducing new regulations to reduce climate change and secure energy supplies. This opens up an opportunity to create a novel sustainable energy sector for future generations. Effective management of green intellectual capital can contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency and support the development of renewable energy sources. The identification of a correlation between GIC and corporate environmental development increases the understanding of how companies can achieve sustainable results through strategic management of their green intellectual capital.
