Sustainable energy systems and company performance: Does the implementation of sustainable energy systems improve companies’ financial performance?

Analyzing the Effect of Corporate Environmental Performance on Corporate Financial Performance in Developed and Developing Countries

“…This database, founded in 2003, collects and compiles publicly available information on firms' CSR strategies using 750 individual data points, combined into over 280 key performance indicators from over 4612 large firms distributed around the world and belonging to several industries. The ASSET4 database has been used in [15,18,101,102], among others. On the other hand, Worldscope database provides information on over 58,000 firms, with more than 37,000 of them active, which are included in this database on meeting at least one of these criteria: (1) their market capitalization must be greater than US$100 million; (2) they must be a member of one or more global or local indexes; (3) they must be quoted on many stock markets; and (4) they must have high visibility.…”

“…References [43,105] find a positive relationship in the US and Egyptian geographical market, respectively, indicating that firms increasing their debt levels to improve their production processes and/or to reduce the environmental footprint of their business activities increase their corporate financial performance, as in [102]; On the other hand, Reference [106,107] in the Japan geographical market and [108] from a multi-country perspective show a negative connection, indicating that high debt levels influence firms' ability to meet their financial obligations [104], what negatively affects corporate financial performance. Hence, we control the level of debt by means of the Leverage variable, measured as the total debt of the firm divided by its total assets, being a proxy for the firm's risk [43].…”

The role of mutual funds in the sustainable energy sector

“…However, different states of the economy could affect the financial performance of firms that promote renewable energy practices, that belong to the conventional energy sector, and that adopt traditional management strategies in different ways (Gallego Álvarez, ; Marti, Rovira‐Val, & Drescher, ; Martí, ). According to Martí (), during crisis periods, firms have lower sales and therefore poorer corporate financial performance.…”

“…The adoption of sustainable energy activities requires firms to make large investments in new renewable energy technology and processes (Kumar, Managi, & Matsuda, ; Martí, ), whereby the increase in investment costs could deteriorate short‐term corporate financial performance from neoclassical economic theory (Friedman, ). Empirical evidence supporting this theory is provided by Paun (), who finds that firms operating in the renewable energy sector suffer financial difficulties due to such activities not integrating in their core business strategies.…”

Environmental Assessment of Energy Scenarios for a Low-Carbon Electrical Network in Chile

“…According to several studies [11][12][13], the solar power potential in the north could supply most of the demand for several decades and in the south, wind and marine current power energy may also be auspicious. In fact, many companies are investing in these technologies with sight of the "sustainable" tag for their products, taking advantage of the well-known decreased investment cost [14,15]. Further, Chilean laws are also helping to deploy them and new grids are being created or interconnected for avoiding energy loses to take the most from renewables [16].…”