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Corporate Environmental Performance and Disclosure: Implications for Sustainability—Second Edition

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Economic and Business Aspects of Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 6 July 2026 | Viewed by 1948

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: green finance; modular integrated construction (MiC)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
School of Business, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
Interests: ESG; climate change; energy economics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are delighted to announce a call for papers for a Special Issue on "Corporate Environmental Performance and Disclosure: Implications for Sustainability—Second Edition", which aims to explore and advance our understanding of how corporate environmental performance and disclosure practices contribute to sustainability. We invite scholars and practitioners to submit their original research and insightful contributions to this important and timely topic.

The field of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research has gained significant attention in recent years. Within this domain, corporate environmental performance and disclosure play a crucial role in shaping the sustainability landscape and attracting green/climate finance. As businesses face increasing pressure to address environmental challenges, understanding the implications of their environmental performance and disclosure practices is essential for sustainable development. This Special Issue seeks to delve into the scientific background of this research area, highlighting its importance and providing a platform for rigorous exploration and analysis. The Special Issue welcomes interdisciplinary perspectives that integrate insights from fields such as environmental science, economics, finance, management, and policy.

Areas of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

  • Corporate environmental disclosure and environmental performance/carbon emissions;
  • Environmental regulations/policies and corporate environmental practices and disclosure;
  • Comparative analyses of environmental performance and disclosure practices across industries, regions, or countries;
  • Corporate carbon disclosure and its implications on stock market and financial performance;
  • The role of technology and innovation in driving environmental sustainability;
  • The effectiveness of sustainability reporting frameworks and standards in promoting environmental disclosure and performance;
  • Blockchain, smart contracts, and corporate environmental disclosure;
  • The use of large language models (e.g., GPT) in corporate environmental disclosure;
  • Corporate environmental performance and carbon neutrality;
  • Corporate environmental disclosure and greenwashing;
  • Carbon disclosure, verification, and climate finance;
  • Other topics related to corporate environmental practices and disclosure.

Dr. Jianfu Shen
Dr. William Yu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • corporate environmental performance
  • disclosure
  • sustainability
  • carbon emission
  • ESG

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 278 KB  
Article
Digital Finance, Internal and External Governance, and Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure
by Yinglu Gao and Wenlin Gui
Sustainability 2026, 18(6), 2810; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18062810 - 13 Mar 2026
Viewed by 429
Abstract
Using the data of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2021 and the Digital Inclusive Finance Index from Peking University, this study investigates the impact of digital finance on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure from both internal and external perspectives. The [...] Read more.
Using the data of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2021 and the Digital Inclusive Finance Index from Peking University, this study investigates the impact of digital finance on the quality of corporate environmental information disclosure from both internal and external perspectives. The findings indicate the following: (1) Digital finance significantly enhances corporate environmental information disclosure quality, a conclusion that remains valid after a series of robustness tests. (2) Mechanism analysis shows that digital finance boosts disclosure quality by enhancing corporate environmental awareness and strengthening external oversight. (3) Heterogeneity analysis shows that digital finance more strongly enhances environmental disclosure quality for state-owned enterprises, firms in non-heavy pollution industries, and those located in regions with well-developed digital infrastructure. (4) Economic consequences analysis demonstrates that better disclosure quality, driven by digital finance, boosts a firm’s capital attractiveness, R&D investments, financing conditions, and green innovation. This process also triggers significant environmental spillover effects. The findings enrich theoretical research in digital finance and expand the discussion on enhancing environmental information disclosure. Full article
26 pages, 1087 KB  
Article
Green Bellwether: How Do Government Environmental Concerns Influence Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure?
by Wenxiao Zhou, Jinhua Cheng, Haixia Yang, Ruisi Zhang and Henglang Xie
Sustainability 2026, 18(1), 477; https://doi.org/10.3390/su18010477 - 2 Jan 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 899
Abstract
In the face of increasingly severe global environmental challenges, corporate environmental information disclosure (CEID) has become a critical link connecting national ecological governance goals with firms’ green development practices. From the perspective of green signaling, this study examines whether government environmental concerns (GEC) [...] Read more.
In the face of increasingly severe global environmental challenges, corporate environmental information disclosure (CEID) has become a critical link connecting national ecological governance goals with firms’ green development practices. From the perspective of green signaling, this study examines whether government environmental concerns (GEC) in China incentivize CEID and the mechanisms underlying this effect. We theoretically elaborate the transmission pathways and moderating effects of GEC, and measure GEC and CEID indicators using text analysis of local government work reports and corporate annual reports. Based on a series of empirical tests on Chinese A-share listed firms from 2008 to 2023, we find that: (1) GEC can significantly enhance CEID by attracting green investors and fostering greater media scrutiny. (2) Green technological innovation exhibits a masking effect, which reveals a counterintuitive mechanism whereby stringent environmental regulation may divert innovation resources toward pollution control investments. (3) The impact of GEC is positively moderated by external volatility such as climate policy and market uncertainty and internal capabilities such as firms’ digital transformation. (4) Further heterogeneity analysis shows that GEC has a more significant impact on non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises in heavily polluting industries, and those in the mature or declining stage. This study provides a new theoretical lens for understanding the dynamic interplay between institutional pressure and corporate behavioral responses, and offers empirical insights for calibrating the intensity of GEC to maximize incentives for firms to engage in sustainable practices. Full article
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