Search Results (143)

Climate change poses an existential threat, spurring businesses and financial markets to integrate environmental accounting and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) disclosures into decision-making. This study aims to examine how environmental accounting practices and ESG reporting contribute to climate change mitigation in organizations. It seeks to highlight the significance of these tools in enhancing transparency and accountability, thereby driving more sustainable corporate behavior. By synthesizing the recent literature, the study contributes a comprehensive overview of best practices and challenges at the intersection of accounting and climate action, addressing a noted gap in consolidated knowledge. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) following PRISMA guidelines. A broad search (2010–2024) across Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar identified 73 records, which were rigorously screened and distilled to 47 relevant peer-reviewed studies. These studies span global contexts and include both conceptual and empirical work, providing a robust dataset for analysis. Environmental accounting was found to play a pivotal role in measuring and managing corporate carbon footprints, effectively translating climate impacts into quantifiable metrics. Firms that implement rigorous carbon accounting and internalize environmental costs tend to set more precise emission reduction targets and justify mitigation investments through a cost–benefit analysis. ESG disclosure frameworks emerged as critical external tools: a high-quality climate disclosure is linked with greater stakeholder trust and even financial benefits such as lower capital costs. Leading companies aligning reports with standards like TCFD or GRI often enjoy enhanced credibility and investor confidence. However, the review also uncovered challenges, like the lack of standardized reporting, risks of greenwashing, and disparities in adoption across regions, that impede the full effectiveness of these practices. The findings underscore that while environmental accounting and ESG reporting are powerful means to drive corporate climate action, their impact depends on improving consistency, rigor, and integration. Harmonizing global reporting standards and mandating disclosures are identified as key steps to improve data comparability. Strengthening the credibility of ESG disclosures and embedding environmental metrics into core decision-making are essential to leverage accounting as a tool for climate change mitigation. The study recommends that policymakers accelerate moves toward mandatory, standardized ESG reporting and urges organizations to proactively enhance their environmental accounting systems that will support global climate objectives and further research on actual emission outcomes. Full article

This study develops an integrated risk modeling framework to assess capital adequacy and optimize portfolio performance for Thai life and non-life insurers. Leveraging ARMA–GJR–GARCH models with skewed Student-t innovations, extreme value theory, and dynamic R-vine copulas, the framework effectively captures volatility, tail risks, and evolving asset interdependencies. Utilizing daily data from 2014 to 2024, the models generate value-at-risk forecasts consistent with international standards such as Basel III’s 10-day 99% VaR and rolling Sharpe ratios for portfolios integrating green bonds compared to traditional asset allocations. The results demonstrate that green bonds, fixedincome instruments funding renewable energy and other environmental projects, significantly improve risk-adjusted returns and have the potential to reduce capital requirements, particularly for life insurers with long-term sustainability mandates. These findings underscore the importance of portfolio-level capital assessment and support the proactive integration of ESG considerations into supervisory investment guidelines to enhance financial resilience and align the insurance sector with Thailand’s sustainable finance agenda. Full article

The registration system reform (RSR) represents a landmark innovation in China’s IPO system, aiming to promote a more transparent, competitive, and sustainable market. Exploiting the staggered implementation of RSR as a quasi-natural experiment, we employ a difference-in-differences (DID) model using a sample of Chinese A-share IPO firms from 2016 to 2022 to investigate its impact on corporate sustainability, as proxied by environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Our findings indicate that RSR significantly enhances corporate ESG performance, especially the governance (G) performance. Mechanism analysis suggests that market competition, investor rationality, and sponsor reputation are potential channels through which the reform facilitates corporate sustainability. Furthermore, the above relationship is more pronounced in regions with a higher degree of marketization, among non-state-owned enterprises, and those with weaker profitability. Moreover, the reform not only exhibits long-term effects but also demonstrates positive spillover effects on peer firms originally listed under the approval-based system. Overall, our study extends the understanding of how capital market institutional reforms promote corporate sustainability in the era of the digital economy and provides valuable insights for regulators to standardize and enhance RSR, thereby establishing a resilient and sustainable financial ecosystem. Full article

This study presents the Wood Protection Sustainability Index (WPSI), a novel decision-support tool aimed at evaluating wood preservatives utilized in Chile and facilitating a shift toward more sustainable wood protection practices. WPSI encompasses four essential attributes: protection treatment, wood durability, in-service risk, and sustainability. These are assessed under two distinct scenarios. Scenario 1 represents current market practices, where chromated copper arsenate (CCA) remains prevalent due to its accessibility and affordable cost. In contrast, Scenario 2 prioritizes sustainability, demonstrating that copper azole (CA) and alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) surpass CCA in performance, with CCA ranking lowest due to its environmental implications. Furthermore, a SWOT analysis accompanies the index, identifying key challenges and opportunities within Chile’s wood preservation industry. The findings highlight the importance of aligning national strategies with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), through performance-based regulations and safer alternatives. The WPSI can be integrated with local standards, regional risk classifications, and national preservative approval systems, allowing for meaningful comparison across diverse global contexts. This approach promotes more sustainable construction practices while ensuring both technical and economic viability. Full article

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure represents a critical frontier for corporate transparency in emerging markets. This study investigates the relationship between AI adoption in ESG reporting, disclosure quality, and financial performance among 180 Saudi-listed companies (2021–2024) within Vision 2030’s transformative context. Using the System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimation with panel unit root and cointegration testing to ensure stationarity assumptions and addressing endogeneity through bounding analysis, the study finds that AI adoption intensity significantly enhances ESG disclosure quality (β = 0.289, p < 0.001), with coefficient significance assessed through t-tests using firm-clustered robust standard errors. Enhanced disclosure quality translates into meaningful financial performance improvements: 0.094 percentage points in return on assets (ROA), 0.156 in return on equity (ROE), and 0.0073 units in Tobin’s Q. Mediation analysis reveals that 73% of AI’s total effect operates through improved ESG quality rather than direct operational benefits. The findings demonstrate parametric bounds robust to macroeconomic confounders, suggesting AI-enhanced transparency creates substantial shareholder value through strengthened stakeholder relationships and reduced information asymmetries. Full article

The outlook for biobased plastics in packaging applications is increasingly promising, driven by a combination of environmental advantages, technological innovation, and shifting market dynamics. Derived from renewable biological resources, these materials offer compelling benefits over conventional fossil-based plastics. They can substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are often recyclable or biodegradable, and, in some cases, require less energy to produce. These characteristics position biobased plastics as a key solution to urgent environmental challenges, particularly those related to climate change and resource scarcity. Biobased plastics also demonstrate remarkable versatility. Their applications range from high-performance barrier layers in multilayer packaging to thermoformed containers, textile fibers, and lightweight plastic bags. Notably, all major fossil-based packaging applications can be substituted with biobased alternatives. This adaptability enhances their commercial viability across diverse sectors, including food and beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, agriculture, textiles, and consumer goods. Several factors are accelerating growth in this sector. These include the increasing urgency of climate action, the innovation potential of biobased materials, and expanding government support through funding and regulatory initiatives. At the same time, consumer demand is shifting toward sustainable products, and companies are aligning their strategies with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals—further boosting market momentum. However, significant challenges remain. High production costs, limited economies of scale, and the capital-intensive nature of scaling biobased processes present economic hurdles. The absence of harmonized policies and standards across regions, along with underdeveloped end-of-life infrastructure, impedes effective waste management and recycling. Additionally, consumer confusion around the disposal of biobased plastics—particularly those labeled as biodegradable or compostable—can lead to contamination in recycling streams. Overcoming these barriers will require a coordinated, multifaceted approach. Key actions include investing in infrastructure, advancing technological innovation, supporting research and development, and establishing clear, consistent regulatory frameworks. Public procurement policies, eco-labeling schemes, and incentives for low-carbon products can also play a pivotal role in accelerating adoption. With the right support mechanisms in place, biobased plastics have the potential to become a cornerstone of a sustainable, circular economy. Full article

This research focuses on analyzing the determinants of financial performance for the companies included in the Standard & Poor’s 500 index over the period from 2014 to 2023. To guide managerial decisions aimed at enhancing company performance, this study examines, as key drivers, the main financial indicators, core corporate governance characteristics, and U.S. public governance indicators. The investigation begins with a retrospective review of the specialized literature, highlighting the findings of previous studies in the field and providing the basis for selecting the variables used in the present empirical analysis. The research method employed is fixed-effects panel-data regression. The dependent variables are financial performance measures, such as the EBITDA margin, EBIT margin, net profit margin, and ROA. This study’s main results show that the price-to-book ratio, liquidity, sales growth, CEO duality, board gender diversity, ESG score, and U.S. regulatory quality exert a positive influence on financial performance. In contrast, the price-to-earnings ratio, net debt, capital intensity, R&D intensity, weighted average cost of capital, board independence, and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis have a negative impact on the financial performance of U.S. companies. The findings of this investigation could serve as benchmarks for supporting managerial decisions at the company level regarding the improvement of their financial performance. Full article

The Multi-User Textile Analysis Laboratory (LTex), a case study from a Brazilian university, was established to address the technical demands of the local textile industry, a regional hub with a predominantly female workforce. Globally, laboratories seeking recognition for their technical competence rely on accreditation to a widely adopted international standard. This work explores how the technical requirements of this standard can be integrated with Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles, using a Brazilian recommended practice aligned with global frameworks such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals as a reference. The goal is to propose a unified framework for sustainable and inclusive management in university laboratories. The research employed an exploratory literature review, a documentary analysis comparing the two normative documents, the development of a structured checklist, and the formulation of a conceptual model for sustainable and inclusive laboratory management. The findings identified both overlaps and gaps, particularly regarding risk management, transparency, and gender equity, and supported the creation of an evaluation tool structured around six thematic axes. The proposed checklist enables simultaneous assessment of technical compliance and ESG maturity, guiding laboratories toward aligning accreditation processes with sustainability goals. The LTex case study demonstrates the model’s applicability and its potential to foster regulatory compliance, organizational improvement, and female empowerment in technical leadership. Full article

This study explores whether sustainability achievements—proxied through ESG (environmental, social, and governance) reporting—are associated with superior financial performance in Latvia’s manufacturing sector, where ESG maturity remains low and institutional readiness is still emerging. Building on stakeholder, legitimacy, signal, slack resources, and agency theories, this study applies a mixed-method approach (that consists of two analytical stages) suited to the limited availability and reliability of ESG-related data in the Latvian manufacturing sector. Financial indicators from three large firms—AS MADARA COSMETICS, AS Latvijas Finieris, and AS Valmiera Glass Grupa—are compared with industry averages over the 2019–2023 period using independent sample T-tests. ESG integration is evaluated through a six-stage conceptual schema ranging from symbolic compliance to performance-driven sustainability. The results show that AS MADARA COSMETICS, which demonstrates advanced ESG integration aligned with international standards, significantly outperforms its industry in all profitability metrics. In contrast, the other two companies remain at earlier ESG maturity stages and show weaker financial performance, with sustainability disclosures limited to general statements and outdated indicators. These findings support the synergy hypothesis in contexts where sustainability is internalized and operationalized, while also highlighting structural constraints—such as resource scarcity and fragmented data—that may limit ESG-financial alignment in post-transition economies. This study offers practical guidance for firms seeking competitive advantage through strategic ESG integration and recommends policy actions to enhance ESG transparency and performance in Latvia, including performance-based reporting mandates, ESG data infrastructure, and regulatory alignment with EU directives. These insights contribute to the growing empirical literature on ESG effectiveness under constrained institutional and economic conditions. Full article

This study examines how Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting is communicated and perceived on YouTube. A dataset of 553 relevant videos and 5060 user comments was extracted on 2 April 2025 ranging between 2014 and 2025, and sentiment, topic, and stance analyses were applied to both transcripts and comments. The majority of video content strongly endorsed ESG reporting, emphasizing themes such as transparency, regulatory compliance, and financial performance. In contrast, viewer comments revealed diverse stances, including skepticism about methodological inconsistencies, accusations of greenwashing, and concerns over politicization. Notably, statistical analysis showed minimal correlation between video sentiment and audience sentiment, suggesting that user perceptions are shaped by factors beyond the tone of the videos themselves. These findings underscore the need for more rigorous ESG frameworks, enhanced standardization, and proactive stakeholder engagement strategies. The study highlights the value of online platforms for capturing stakeholder feedback in real time, offering practical insights for organizations and policymakers seeking to strengthen ESG disclosure and communication. Full article

Emerging markets face growing pressures to integrate sustainable English business practices while maintaining economic growth, particularly in addressing environmental challenges and achieving carbon neutrality goals. English Financial information extraction becomes crucial for supporting green finance initiatives, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) compliance, and sustainable investment decisions in these markets. This paper presents FinATG, an AI-driven autoregressive framework for extracting sustainability-related English financial information from English texts, specifically designed to support emerging markets in their transition toward sustainable development. The framework addresses the complex challenges of processing ESG reports, green bond disclosures, carbon footprint assessments, and sustainable investment documentation prevalent in emerging economies. FinATG introduces a domain-adaptive span representation method fine-tuned on sustainability-focused English financial corpora, implements constrained decoding mechanisms based on green finance regulations, and integrates FinBERT with autoregressive generation for end-to-end extraction of environmental and governance information. While achieving competitive performance on standard benchmarks, FinATG’s primary contribution lies in its architecture, which prioritizes correctness and compliance for the high-stakes financial domain. Experimental validation demonstrates FinATG’s effectiveness with entity F1 scores of 88.5 and REL F1 scores of 80.2 on standard English datasets, while achieving superior performance (85.7–86.0 entity F1, 73.1–74.0 REL+ F1) on sustainability-focused financial datasets. The framework particularly excels in extracting carbon emission data, green investment relationships, and ESG compliance indicators, achieving average AUC and RGR scores of 0.93 and 0.89 respectively. By automating the extraction of sustainability metrics from complex English financial documents, FinATG supports emerging markets in meeting international ESG standards, facilitating green finance flows, and enhancing transparency in sustainable business practices, ultimately contributing to their sustainable development goals and climate action commitments. Full article

The water sector is facing a convergence of systemic challenges generated by climate change, increasing demand, and increasingly stringent regulations, which threaten its operational and strategic sustainability. In this context, the article examines how ESG (environmental, social, governance) principles are integrated into the governance, financing, and management of water resources, with a comparative focus on Romania and the European Union. It aims to assess the extent to which ESG practices contribute to the sustainable transformation of the water sector in the face of growing environmental and socio-economic challenges. The methodology is based on a systematic analysis of policy documents, regulatory frameworks, and ESG standards applicable to the water sector at both national (Romania) and EU levels. This study also investigates investment strategies and their alignment with the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities, enabling a comparative perspective on implementation, gaps and strengths. Findings reveal that while ESG principles are increasingly recognized across Europe, their implementation remains uneven (particularly in Romania) due to unclear standards, limited funding mechanisms, and fragmented policy coordination. ESG integration shows clear potential to foster innovation, improve governance transparency, and support long-term resilience in the water sector. These results underline the need for coherent, integrated policies and stronger institutional coordination to ensure consistent ESG adoption across Member States. Policymakers should prioritize the development of clear guidelines and supportive funding instruments to accelerate sustainable outcomes. The originality of our study lies in its comparative approach, offering an in-depth analysis of ESG integration in the water sector across different governance contexts. It provides valuable insights for advancing policy coherence, investment alignment, and sustainable water resource management at both national and European levels. Full article

Sustainability reporting has evolved into a multidimensional field encompassing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure, integrated reporting (IR), and circular economy (CE) practices. This study aims to map the intellectual and thematic landscape of sustainability reporting research over the past decade, with a focus on sectoral differentiation. Drawing on bibliometric analysis of 1611 scientific articles indexed in Scopus, this research applies co-word analysis, thematic mapping, and bibliographic coupling to identify prevailing trends, conceptual clusters, and knowledge gaps. The results reveal a clear progression from fragmented debates toward a more integrated discourse combining ESG, IR, and CE frameworks. In the real economy, sustainability reporting demonstrates a mature operational focus, supported by standardized frameworks and extensive empirical evidence. In contrast, the banking sector exhibits emerging engagement with sustainability disclosure, while the public sector remains at an earlier stage of conceptual and practical development. Despite the increasing convergence of research streams, gaps persist in linking reporting practices to tangible sustainability outcomes, integrating digital innovations, and addressing social dimensions of circularity. This study concludes that further interdisciplinary and sector-specific research is essential to advance credible, comparable, and decision-useful reporting practices capable of supporting the transition toward sustainable and circular business models. Full article

This study investigates the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure on value creation in a balanced panel of 100 non-financial Sharia-compliant firms listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange over the period 2014–2023. The analysis employs a combination of econometric techniques, including fixed effects models with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors and industry and year dummies, and two-step system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation to address potential endogeneity and omitted variable bias. Value creation is measured using Tobin’s Q (TBQ), Return on Assets (ROA), and Return on Equity (ROE). The models also control for firm-specific variables such as firm size, leverage, asset tangibility, firm age, growth opportunities, and market capitalization. The findings reveal that ESG disclosure has a positive and statistically significant effect on firm value across all three performance measures. Furthermore, firm size significantly moderates this relationship, with larger Sharia-compliant firms experiencing greater value gains from ESG practices. These results align with agency, stakeholder, and signaling theories, emphasizing the role of ESG in enhancing transparency, reducing information asymmetry, and strengthening stakeholder trust. The study provides empirical evidence relevant to policymakers, investors, and firms striving to achieve Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 sustainability goals. Full article

As sustainability becomes a strategic priority across global financial services, its implementation in emerging insurance markets remains insufficiently understood. This study explores the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles within Saudi Arabia’s insurance sector, combining content analysis of corporate disclosures with qualitative insights from industry stakeholders. The research investigates how insurers embed ESG principles into their operations, the development of sustainable insurance products, and their perceived financial and regulatory implications. The findings reveal gradual progress in ESG integration, primarily driven by governance reforms aligned with national development agendas, while social and environmental dimensions remain comparatively underdeveloped. Stakeholders identify regulatory ambiguity, data limitations, and technical capacity as persistent barriers, but also point to increasing investor and consumer interest in sustainability-aligned offerings. This study offers policy and managerial recommendations to advance ESG principle adoption, emphasizing standardized disclosures, capacity-building, and product innovation. It contributes to the limited empirical literature on ESG principles in Middle Eastern insurance markets and highlights the sector’s potential role in promoting inclusive and sustainable finance. Full article