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This study aims to examine whether and how corporate sustainability capability influences energy efficiency through competitive intensity and slack resource availability.

The authors applied a two-wave research design and administered a survey questionnaire to senior-level managers of 78 ISO-14001 and ISO-50001 certified manufacturing companies. The authors use a multi-method approach for data analysis. AMOS 23 software was applied for covariance-based structural equation modeling. In addition, SPSS 25 software was applied for hierarchical regression analysis to examine the causal relationships in the model.

The finding reveals that corporate sustainability capabilities, which include energy-saving opportunities, seizing energy-saving opportunities and resource reconfiguration, significantly improve firms’ energy efficiency. In addition, competitive intensity and slack resource availability positively moderated the relationship between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to examine the link between corporate sustainability capability and energy efficiency in developing countries such as Pakistan. Although the influence of various corporate sustainability capabilities on sustainable performance has been widely examined in the literature, the role of corporate sustainability capability has been limitedly explored with energy efficiency. This study extends the literature by adding to the knowledge of corporate sustainability capability that enhances boundary conditions in developing countries.

This study aims to assess financial development and debt status impact on energy efficiency in Nigeria as a developing economy.

This study combined the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL), fully modified ordinary least squares and canonical cointegration regression analytical methods to estimate the parameters for energy efficiency policy recommendations. Secondary data between 1990 and 2020 were used for the analysis.

The result confirms the long-run nexus between energy efficiency, financial development and total debt stock. Furthermore, the ARDL estimates for this study’s key variables show that financial development promotes energy efficiency in the short run but hinders long-run energy efficiency. Total debt stock limits energy efficiency in Nigeria in short- and long-run periods.

The limitation of this study is that the scope is limited to Nigeria as a developing economy. The need to support energy efficiency projects is a global call requiring cross-country analysis. Despite this study’s focus on Nigeria, it provides useful insights that can guide energy efficiency policy through the financial sector and debt management.

The financial sector must ensure the availability of long-term credit facilities to clean energy investors. The government must maintain a sustainable debt profile to pave the way for capital expenditure on clean energy projects that promote energy efficiency.

The environmental consequences of energy intensity are being felt globally, with the developing countries most vulnerable. The cheapest way to curb these consequences is to promote energy efficiency to reduce the disastrous effect. Driving energy efficiency requires investment in energy-efficient technology but the challenge for developing economies, i.e. Nigeria’s funding, remains challenging amid a blotted debt profile. This becomes crucial to investigate how financial sector development and debt management can accelerate energy-efficient investments in Nigeria.

The rapid development and high penetration of digitalization have triggered profound changes in the energy sector. The purpose of this study is to integrate the government digital transformation into the analysis framework and discuss its impact on urban energy efficiency and its realization mechanism.

Using the “Information Benefit Pilot City” (IBC) policy as a quasi-natural experiment, and drawing on data from 285 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2019, this paper discusses how digital government affects urban energy efficiency by using difference-in-differences (DID).

The results show that digital governance significantly improves energy efficiency, and this conclusion remains reliable even after a series of robustness tests, endogeneity processing and sensitivity analysis. Heterogeneity results show that resource-based, eastern, high economic development level and high urbanization rate city digital government construction are more conducive to improving energy efficiency. The mediating effect shows that the influence mechanism of digital government on energy efficiency mainly includes reducing carbon emission, promoting green technology innovation and attracting talents.

(1) From the perspective of government digital transformation, this study supplements the way to improve energy efficiency and also expands the social dividend of government governance transformation. (2) Through quasi-experimental analysis of IBC policy, this paper solves the problem of difficulty in quantifying the government's digital transformation indicators. (3) The impact heterogeneity and realization mechanism are further discussed and the specific ways of digital government's impact on energy efficiency are revealed.

Examine the effects of sudden environmental disasters on the advancement of both renewable and conventional energy technologies.

Utilizing panel data from 31 Chinese provinces spanning 2011 to 2022, the SEM (Spatial Error Model) dual fixed model is utilized to examine the impact of sudden environmental disasters on energy technologies.

The findings reveal that: (1) Sudden environmental disasters exert a markedly positive influence on the Innovation of Renewable Energy Technologies (IRET), while their impact on conventional energy technologies is positively non-significant. (2) Sudden environmental disasters not only significantly enhance innovation in local renewable energy technologies but also extend this positive influence to neighboring regions, demonstrating a spatial spillover phenomenon. (3) Research and Development (R&D) funding serves as a partial mediator in the relationship between sudden environmental disasters and renewable ETI. In contrast, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) exhibits a masking effect.

Consequently, the study advocates for intensified efforts in post-disaster reconstruction following abrupt environmental events, an elevation in the quality of foreign direct investments, and leveraging research funding to catalyze innovation in renewable energy technologies amid unforeseen environmental crises.

The aim is to holistically assess the environmental performance of windows and analyse how their design and characteristics contribute to the overall performance of the building/space. This study focuses on the performance of windows in patient rooms hosting less mobile people.

This study investigates the life cycle environmental impacts of different glazing types, window frames and fire safety doors at the product level. This article also presents a building-integrated environmental analysis of patient rooms that considers the multiple functionalities of windows by incorporating dynamic energy analysis, comfort and daylighting performance with a life cycle assessment (LCA) study.

The results indicate that the amount of flat glass is the main contributor to the environmental impacts of the glazing units. As for the patient rooms, global warming shows the most significant contribution to the environmental costs, followed by human toxicity, particulate matter formation and eutrophication. The key drivers for these impacts are production processes and operational energy use. This study highlights the significance of evaluating a wide range of criteria for assessing the performance of windows.

An integrated assessment approach is used to investigate the influence of windows on environmental performance by considering the link between window/design parameters and their effects on energy use/costs, daylighting, comfort and environmental impacts. The embodied impacts of different building elements and the influence of various design parameters on environmental performance are assessed and compared. The environmental costs are expressed as an external environmental cost (euro).

A promising solution to meet the challenge of sustainability and ensure the protection of the environment consists in acting considerably on the adoption and use of new information and communication technologies. The latter can act on the protection of the environment; completely change manufacturing processes into energy-efficient, eco-friendly techniques or influence institutions and governance. The article attempts to cover shortcomings in the literature by providing a couple of theoretical frameworks and grounded empirical proofs for the dissemination of green technologies and the interaction of the latter with institutional quality.

The sample is made up of 43 African countries covering the period 2000–2020 and a panel VAR modeling approach is employed.

Our results show that an attenuation of CO2 emissions amplifies the diffusion of digital technologies (mobile telephones and Internet). Efficiency in the institutional quality of African countries is mandatory for environmental preservation. Moreover, the provision of a favorable institutional framework in favor of renewable energy helps to stimulate environmental performance in African states.

This study complements the extant literature by assessing nexuses between green technology and CO2 emissions in environmental sustainability.

Integrated reporting enhances the meaningfulness of non-financial information, but whether this enhancement is progressive or regressive from a sustainability perspective is unknown. This study aims to examine the influence of the Integrated Reporting (<IR>) Framework on the disclosure of financial- and impact-material sustainability-related information in integrated reports.

Using a disclosure index constructed from the Global Reporting Initiative’s G4 Guidelines and UN Sustainable Development Goals, the authors content analysed integrated reports of 40 companies from the International Integrated Reporting Council’s Pilot Programme Business Network published between 2015 and 2017. The content analysis distinguished between financial- and impact-material sustainability-related information.

The extent of sustainability-related disclosures in integrated reports remained more or less constant over the study period. Impact-material disclosures were more prominent than financial material ones. Impact-material disclosures mainly related to environmental aspects, while labour practices-related disclosures were predominantly financially material. The balance between financially- and impact-material sustainability-related disclosures varied based on factors such as industry environmental sensitivity and country-specific characteristics, such as the country’s legal system and development status.

The paper presents a unique disclosure index to distinguish between financially- and impact-material sustainability-related disclosures. Researchers can use this disclosure index to critically examine the nature of sustainability-related disclosure in corporate reports.

This study offers an in-depth understanding of the influence of non-financial reporting frameworks, such as the <IR> Framework that uses a financial materiality perspective, on sustainability reporting. The findings reveal that the practical implementation of the <IR> Framework resulted in sustainability reporting outcomes that deviated from theoretical expectations. Exploring the materiality concept that underscores sustainability-related disclosures by companies using the <IR> Framework is useful for predicting the effects of adopting the Sustainability Disclosure Standards issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board, which also emphasises financial materiality.

Despite an emphasis on financial materiality in the <IR> Framework, companies continue to offer substantial impact-material information, implying the potential for companies to balance both financial and broader societal concerns in their reporting.

While prior research has delved into the practices of regulated integrated reporting, especially in the unique context of South Africa, this study focuses on voluntary adoption, attributing observed practices to intrinsic company motivations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study to explicitly explore the nature of materiality in sustainability-related disclosure. The research also introduces a nuanced understanding of contextual factors influencing sustainability reporting.

With the increasing concern over environmental pollution and global warming, companies are required to act responsibly to mitigate these environmental issues. Their activities should adhere to the standards of environmental sustainability. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the impact of green supply chain management (GSCM) and total quality management (TQM) on environmental sustainability, with environmental management practices (EMP) as the moderating factor.

A quantitative study was adopted using the management data from various manufacturing companies in Jordan. A total of 362 responses were collected, and the proposed hypotheses were tested using a structural equation model.

The study findings revealed that both GSCM and TQM significantly and positively influenced environmental sustainability. The impact of TQM on environmental sustainability was higher than that of GSCM. Moreover, no evidence was found on the moderating role of EMP.

The study’s results highlighted to the decision-makers the main practices to expand the quality implementation across their supply chain to improve environmental sustainability. The study also demonstrated the reasons behind the insignificance of EMPs in strengthening the relationships between GSCM, TQM, and environmental sustainability.

While there are very few studies examining the relationships between GSCM and TQM on environmental sustainability. This study adds to the literature body as one of a few empirical studies that tested the integrated effect of GSCM and TQM practices within the context of the manufacturing industry in a developing country. Moreover, this study takes a holistic approach by tapping into EMP to confirm whether it moderated the relationships between GSCM, TQM, and environmental sustainability.

This study investigates the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure on firm financial performance under a mandatory disclosure regime in Hong Kong.

The authors examine the largest 109 firms listed on the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) as of the financial year of 2019. The authors use a manually constructed index based on the most current 2019 ESG Reporting Guide launched by HKEX, followed by quantitative statistical methods using a model that follows the valuation framework by Ohlson.

The authors find a significant positive association between total ESG disclosure level and firm financial performance in the main tests. However, when the total ESG scores are partitioned into environmental and social subscores, the results show that only social disclosures are value relevant. Moreover, the results demonstrate that environmental and social subscores are both significant when return on assets (ROA) is used as a dependent variable. Furthermore, the robustness tests show that only qualitative ESG information is value relevant to share prices, while both quantitative and qualitative ESG information are relevant to ROA. In addition, the disclosure quality of annual reports alone is good in explaining the firm financial performance in this study.

This study contributes to existing non-financial reporting literature using hand-collected data as well as examining the firm financial performance of ESG reporting under the mandatory disclosure regime in the Hong Kong context.

This study attempts to come in help for Morocco by investigating rigorously the linkage between environmental degradation, measured by ecological footprint (EF), and the gross domestic product growth (EG), the human capital (HC) index and the natural resources (NR) depletion over the period of 1980:Q1 to 2021:Q1. The paper examines the validity of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis in the Moroccan context.

Unlike previous studies, which are based only on the autoregressif dynamic linear (ARDL) model, this paper investigates two recent models: the novel DYNARDL simulation approach and the Kernel-based regularized least squares (KRLS) technics and uses in addition the frequency domain causality (FDC) test.

Models output say a significant and negative association between HC and the EF and a significant and positive interplay between economic growth and environmental quality in the long term. In the short term, findings reveal a significant and negative association between NR and the EF. Based on the FDC test, results conclude about a unidirectional causality from NR to the EF in short-, medium-, and long-term. Moreover, results validate the EKC hypothesis for the Moroccan environment sustainability.

In this study, the researchers use the “ecological footprint” as dependent variable to obtain more accurate and comprehensive assessment of environmental deterioration. Based on time series data investigations, this study is the first paper, which validates the EKC hypothesis and develops important policy implications for Morocco context to achieve sustainable development targets.