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The intensity of carbon emissions has led to the serious problem of global warming, and the consequences in terms of climatic disasters are gaining increasing attention worldwide. As the energy sector is responsible for most global emissions, developing clean energy is crucial to combat climate change. This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance and renewable energy (RE) consumption and explore the interaction between RE production and RE use.

The study adopts an econometric framework of a panel model, followed by the robustness check using alternative methods, including logit regressions. The bivariate probit model is used to analyze the interaction between the decision to use and the decision to produce RE. The analysis is based on a sample of 3,896 firms covering 45 countries worldwide.

The results reveal that appropriate governance mechanisms positively impact RE consumption. These include the existence of a sustainability committee; environmental, social and governance-based compensation policy; financial performance-based compensation; sustainability external audit; transparency; board gender diversity; and board independence. Firms with appropriate governance mechanisms are more likely to produce and use RE than others. Finally, while RE use positively impacts firm value and environmental performance, the authors find no significant effect on current profitability.

This study goes beyond previous research by exploring the impact of multiple governance mechanisms. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is also the first study examining the relationship between RE use and firm value. Overall, the findings suggest that RE transition requires, first of all, establishing appropriate governance mechanisms within companies.

Sustainable development (SD) is widely acknowledged as the center around which all development efforts should revolve. Banking is a crucial component of SD, and the adoption of sustainable banking practices by various banking institutions is a powerful catalyst for its achievement. This paper aims to investigate the level of adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators in India and the extent to which financial institutions use these strategies. In addition, the banks have been classified according to their sustainable banking performance and showing a relationship between ESG and sustainability.

An ESG framework has been developed for the Indian banking system that focuses on the behavior of banks. The evaluation of literature helps to identify the gaps in particular frameworks for analyzing sustainable banking practices in developing nations because of the variation in economic criteria between developed and developing countries. An attempt to construct a common framework for measuring the banking sector’s sustainable efforts has been done in the past. Specifically in India, where the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability are of equal importance to governance indicators, these studies fall short of providing relevant indicators. Multiple financial reports, nonfinancial reports, corporate social responsibility reports and business responsibility reports of this sector were analyzed using content analysis techniques against ESG indicators for sustainability attainment.

The result of this study shows that both the sectors are disclosing their environmental indicators more as compared to other dimensions. While the analysis says that private companies are going better than public companies in terms of disclosing their ESG indicators. As compared to the international banking sector, adoption of Global Reporting Initiatives standards, United Nations Environment Programme Financial Initiatives (UNEP FI), Green Credit Policy and Equator Principles (EP) is near to the ground in India. IDFC bank is the only entity that started implementing EP practices and Yes bank also is doing a wonderful implementation of the green policies and is the signatory to UNEP FI.

The current state of sustainable banking in India is reflected in the implementation of the proposed framework. To better integrate sustainability problems into banking, this study provides helpful information for banks and other stakeholders. In addition, this study corrects the lack of research in the Indian context on sustainable banking.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge by far, this is one of the prime studies to inspect the degree of ESG disclosure by the Indian banking sector in their sustainability report.

This research study examines the impact of social and governance initiatives on financial performance of global banks. The study is significant in the context of massive changes in regulations, government policy, social attitudes and market development attributed to banking sector.

The source of data for this study was ESG database of Thomson Reuters. The study was based on 472 global banks. The research paper uses two-stage least square model and the study covered the five-year period 2015–2019.

Banks with high intensity of social and governance-related activities have positive market-based valuation effects. Adequately capitalized banks tend to invest more in social initiatives. Banks' governance initiatives directed toward the use of anti-takeover defensive mechanisms are skeptically perceived by markets. Riskier banks tend to have less investments in social initiatives.

The findings are relevant in the context of expectations from policymakers, consumers and investors with respect to the role which banks ought to play in funding the development of a sustainable economy. The research finding that strong governance and social initiatives by banks are value-enhancing measures is a clear evidence of the significance of ESG initiatives as value-creating mechanisms as perceived by markets.

This study addresses the gap in the research, which examines the role of governance and social initiatives on value creation in the banking sector firms. The study examines the impact of different elements of governance and social initiatives on financial performance of banks.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting has been widely accepted as a vital tool for communicating with stakeholders on a range of social, environmental, and governance issues, but how companies define, interpret, apply, integrate, and communicate their CSR efforts and impacts in corporate reporting is anything but a straightforward task. The purpose of this chapter is to explore the concept of materiality in CSR reporting and demonstrate practical examples of good CSR and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reporting practices. We chose the aviation industry because of its economic relevance, constant growth, and future expected changes in the aftermath of COVID-19. In addition, airlines affect many of the SDGs directly and indirectly with contending results. This chapter is timely because of the growing willingness by companies to integrate CSR and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) thinking into the corporate strategy and business operations using materiality assessment and enhancing their competitive advantage and ability to maintain long-term value and because ESG and ethical investing have become part of the mainstream investing. Thus, this chapter contributes to an understanding of the wide range of existing and new reporting frameworks and regulations and reinforces the importance of discussing how this diversity of approaches can affect the work toward worldwide comparability of CSR and sustainability reporting.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and leverage manipulation and the moderating effects of internal and external supervision.

The authors draw on a sample of Chinese non-financial A-share-listed firms from 2013 to 2020 to explore the effect of ESG ratings on leverage manipulation. Robustness and endogeneity tests confirm the validity of the regression results.

ESG ratings inhibit leverage manipulation by improving social reputation, information transparency and financing constraints. This effect is weakened by internal supervision, captured by the ratio of institutional investor ownership, and strengthened by external supervision, captured by the level of marketization. The effect is stronger in non-state-owned firms and firms in non-polluting industries. The governance dimension of ESG exhibits the strongest effect, with comprehensive environmental governance ratings and social governance ratings also suppressing leverage manipulation.

Firms should strive to cultivate environmental awareness, fulfil their social responsibilities and enhance internal governance, which may help to strengthen the firm’s sustainability orientation, mitigate opportunistic behaviours and ultimately contribute to high-quality firm development. The top managers of firms should exercise self-restraint and take the initiative to reduce leverage manipulation by establishing an appropriate governance structure and sustainable business operation system that incorporate environmental and social governance in addition to general governance.

Policymakers and regulators should formulate unified guidelines with comprehensive criteria to improve the scope and quality of ESG information disclosure and provide specific guidance on ESG practice for firms. Investors should incorporate ESG ratings into their investment decision framework to lower their portfolio risk.

This study contributes to the literature in four ways. Firstly, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is among the first to show that high ESG ratings may mitigate firms’ opportunistic behaviours. Secondly, it identifies the governance factor of leverage manipulation from the perspective of firms’ subjective sustainability orientation. Thirdly, it demonstrates that the relationship between ESG ratings and leverage manipulation varies with the level of internal and external supervision. Finally, it highlights the importance of governance in guaranteeing the other two dimensions’ roles by decomposing overall ESG.

This paper aims to examine the effects of corporate governance mechanisms (board chairman independence, board independent director meeting attendance, audit committee size and audit committee meetings) on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) and its individual component disclosures of listed firms in Saudi Arabia.

The study used unbalanced panel data obtained from the Bloomberg data set over 11 years, from 2010 to 2020.

The findings indicate that board chairman independence (BCI) and audit committee size (AC size) have a significant negative and positive association with ESG disclosure, respectively. However, the results show that board independent director meeting attendance (BIMA) and audit committee meetings (AC meetings) do not significantly influence ESG disclosure. Regarding the individual dimensions (components), the results show that only BIMA has a significant negative association with environmental disclosure. Besides, only BCI and AC meetings have a significant positive association with social disclosure. Also, only BIMA and AC size have a significant positive and negative relationship with governance disclosure, respectively.

The study used a sample of 29 listed companies in Saudi Arabia. Each firm has at least four years of ESG disclosures. Besides, the paper considered only four corporate governance attributes, comprising two each for the board and audit committee.

The results provide insights to regulators, boards of directors, managers and investors to enhance ESG and its components’ reporting toward the sustainable operations and better performance of Saudi firms.

This study is among the few that provide empirical evidence on how some essential corporate governance attributes that have not been given adequate attention by prior studies (board chairman independence, board independent directors’ meeting attendance, audit committee size and audit committee meetings) influence not only ESG reporting as a whole but also its individual dimensions (components).

Global investors demand, regulators require, and companies disclose their sustainability performance information, and scholars have started to conduct research on sustainability performance, reporting and assurance. The goal of firm value creation can be achieved when management considers the interests of all stakeholders and integrates all five economic, governance, social, ethical, and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance into managerial strategies, actions and reporting. This paper provides a synthesis of research on sustainability and presents a theoretical framework consisting of theories and standards relevant to all five EGSEE dimensions of sustainability performance and risks and their integration into corporate culture, business models and reporting in creating stakeholder value.

Although the integration of sustainability into business strategies and operations has received considerable scholarly attention, little is known about how sustainability initiatives across the extended value chain affect this integration. This study aims to analyze the impact of multinational corporations’ supply chain sustainability initiatives on their environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance and the moderating role of the key country-level factors of the multinational’s headquarters.

This study analyzes data published by the top 201 multinationals among Fortune Global 500 companies over the period 2011–2021 on their attempts to integrate sustainability measures in extended supply chains and the resultant impact on their ESG scores. A fixed-effect model is used in the primary empirical study.

Results indicate that managerial interventions through a more robust supply chain policy framework, monitoring mechanisms, corrective actions and training initiatives lead to better ESG-environment pillar performance for multinationals. Additionally, the ESG-environment pillar performance is influenced by the socioeconomic model and country-level ESG risks of the nation where the multinational is headquartered.

The implications of this study are vital for understanding the criticality of sustainability initiatives in the supply chain for a firm’s overall ESG performance. To attain better levels of sustainable performance, multinationals must assume a stewardship position and deploy sustainability initiatives in their extended supply chain.

The study analyses the effectiveness of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework in fostering sustainability. The study utilises a library research by surveying prior literature on issues related to the subject matter. Differing philosophical schools of thoughts of proponents and opponents of the current state of ESG reporting were analysed vis-à-vis their pros and cons, and the resulting outcome of the discourse utilised to set forth a position for engendering sustainable development. The study proposes the development of a holistic integrated framework that incorporates quantitative ESG disclosures with financial reporting, achieved through the monetisation of the ESG indices. The study outlines that despite the perceived herculean nature of the quantification of ESG indices, along with its incorporation into the financial reporting framework, the feat is nevertheless achievable. The integration might, however, be required to occur within phases, as well as a committed participation from the requisite stakeholders. Despite the seemingly precarious nature of the monetisation of the ESG indices, in our opinion, it remains the best bet yet for the promotion of true sustainability of not just the firm, but of the entire planet.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature and extent of internal audit functions’ (IAFs) involvement in environmental, social and governance assurance (ESG) and consulting in Australia. To identify emerging priorities, and the profession’s capacity to respond to these, the paper also explores internal audit practitioners’ perceptions of the current and future importance of these issues and the adequacy of their skills and expertise in meeting the challenges associated with their involvement in these areas.

Data were collected from 100 Chief Audit Executives and internal audit service provider partners through a survey.

Governance issues are a key area of focus for respondents’ assurance and consulting efforts, followed by social and environmental issues, respectively. While governance issues are perceived to be of greatest current importance to IAFs, environmental issues are most commonly expected to increase in importance over the next five years, and are reported to be in greatest need of further development of IAFs’ skills and expertise.

As the corporate landscape and expectations around transparency and accountability increase, the internal audit profession needs to address the current perceived skills gap in their ability to provide assurance and consulting on ESG issues to ensure their continued relevance and ability to meet stakeholders’ needs and expectations in providing effective integrated assurance and in contributing to internal improvements.

This paper provides initial empirical evidence of the nature and extent of internal audit’s involvement in ESG assurance and consulting.