Incorporating sustainability criteria into credit risk management

Does a commercial debtor's economic, environmental and social performance in terms of sustainability affect its credit risk rating? Does adding criteria aimed at assessing a lender's environmental, social or sustainability practices provide added value to traditional financial rating criteria? Many analyses have reported that a correlation exists between companies' environmental and their financial performance. We checked out the assertion that it ‘pays to be sustainable’ by analyzing the role that criteria pertaining to sustainability and environmental orientation play in the commercial credit risk management process. Our results show that sustainability criteria can be used to predict the financial performance of a debtor and improve the predictive validity of the credit rating process. We conclude that the sustainability a firm demonstrates influences its creditworthiness as part of its financial performance. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate sustainability and innovation in SMEs: Evidence of themes and activities in practice

Recently, innovation processes towards sustainable development have received increasing attention in academic literature. This research introduces the combination of insights from innovation theory, sustainable development practice and small business characteristics to unlock new knowledge on factors that influence the translation of sustainable innovation within small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) into practice. The sustainability themes and activities as described for large companies (i.e. in the sustainability reporting and management literature) were used as starting point in this study. It presents empiric results of the PRIMA Project conducted within the rubber and plastics industry (RPI) on sustainable innovation activities. It will show that many sustainable innovations are directed at the improvement of technological processes (eco‐efficiency) and to lower costs of production. These innovations can be seen as incremental. Companies with sustainability integrated in their orientation and innovation processes show value creation: the development of products new to the market (radical innovations) and cooperation with stakeholders. The PRIMA project shows that more insight in SME innovative characteristics and (e)valuation of sustainable innovation efforts provides opportunities to improve the sustainability performance of SMEs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

A resilience perspective of the SEEA

While the SEEA is an important advance in national accounting it remains deficient in a number of ways in regard to natural resources. The dynamic and interactive nature of ecosystems means that any linear, compartmentalised system of accounting will miss significant changes that influence human wellbeing. In particular, losses in resilience of critical capital stocks (through changes in underlying ecosystem variables that do not contribute directly to valued flows, and are therefore not included in the accounts) means that the accounts will not recognise that such stocks are becoming riskier, likely to collapse, and are therefore over‐valued. We present a stock‐based approach to measuring sustainable development (the Inclusive Wealth Approach of [Arrow KJ, Dasgupta P and Maler K‐G. (2003) Evaluating projects and assessing sustainable development in imperfect economies, Environmental and Resource Economics, 26:647-685]) at a regional scale, using an example from South East Australia, which includes an assessment of the resilience of critical capital stocks.     

An environmental performance index for products reflecting damage costs

Several studies have demonstrated how to use DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) based techniques to estimate environmental performance indices. None of these studies, however, are taking information on the environmental damage costs of the pressure types considered into account. This study is bridging a gap between environmental indices founded in physical pressures and damage costs founded in welfare economics. The aim of the paper is twofold: first, to demonstrate how to implement the information on environmental damage costs within a DEA based environmental performance index, and second, to estimate these indices at product level by using Danish input-output data and environmental data from 1997.     

企业所有制结构与区域工业污染——基于我国2003～2009年的省级面板数据研究

本文采用广义矩估计(GMM)法,选取我国2003～2009年的省级面板数据,对国有企业、私营企业和外商港澳台企业与区域工业污染之间的关系进行实证研究。研究结果表明:国有企业、私营企业和外商港澳台企业的环境污染效应均为正,这三类企业的发展均会导致环境状况恶化;征收排污税可以改善环境,而工业污染源治理资金的投入却并未带来相应的环保效益。     

Biodiversity,natural resource accounting and ecological monitoring

The role that natural resource accounting and ecological monitoring can play in conserving biological diversity is discussed. There exists a widespread view that modifications to national income accounting procedures are crucial to the pursuit of sustainability and particularly the protection of biodiversity. However, we argue that the availability of biologically-adjusted national income figures would not, of itself, be likely to contribute significantly to the protection of biological resources. The conservation of biodiversity requires, among other things, a significantly improved understanding of the nature of environmental changes arising from imposed management regimes and the effects that these changes have on the persistence of biodiversity. On this basis, and in the context of sustainable development, we suggest that ecological monitoring should take priority over the generation of economic data.In many regions of the world sufficient ecological knowledge is available to design and implement integrated monitoring networks that can be used to track the status of many components of biodiversity and inform decisions taken over their management. We outline how this might be undertaken using a hierarchical and prioritised approach aimed, pragmatically, in the first instance at helping to preserve those ecosystems, communities and species which are perceived to be most threatened. Some emphasis is given to the Australian situation because it is the only rich megadiversity nation and it is at the forefront of the development of scientific techniques that can be used to help design soundly-based and cost-effective monitoring programs.We acknowledge the useful comments of two referees, and claim exclusive property rights in remaining errors.     

Firm performance in dynamic environments: The role of operational slack and operational scope

This study examines the effects of operational scope (breadth of product offering, extent of geographical diversification, and extent to which production processes can effectively meet varying demand) and operational slack (resources in excess of what is required to fulfill expected demand) on firm performance, contingent on two components of a firm's dynamic environment, unpredictability and instability. We collate quarterly data on 3857 publicly traded firms in 19 industries from the years 1991 to 2013 (representing 99,559 firm-quarter observations). Using panel data analysis, we find that narrow product offerings, low geographical diversification, low levels of excess capacity, and low inventory slack are each positively associated with firm performance. More importantly though, we find that operational scope is associated with improved performance in unpredictable environments, whereas operational slack is associated with improved performance in unstable environments. These findings contribute to the research on operations strategy by identifying the industry-specific environmental conditions under which operational slack and operational scope are associated with firm performance.     

Motivating Employees towards Sustainable Behaviour

Workers engaging in voluntary and unrewarded environmental actions that go above and beyond their job requirements in an organizational setting can crucially contribute to a reduced environmental impact of organizations. This research investigates some of the factors that may contribute to the emergence of such organizational citizenship behaviour directed towards the environment (OCBE). The hypotheses predicted employees' concern for the environment, employees' perceived organizational support for environmental efforts and organizational commitment as antecedents of OCBE. Employees from two organizations (n = 547) completed an online survey. Controlling for organizational tenure, a significant relationship between (a) employees' concern for their environment and OCBE, (b) perceived organizational support for environment efforts and OCBE and (c) organizational commitment and OCBE were found. Furthermore, organizational commitment mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support for environmental efforts and OCBE, but not environmental concern. This study's insights into the factors that can drive employees' engagement in small, voluntary environmental actions at work can guide organizations wishing to encourage such behaviours. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

油气企业环境会计的研究与探讨

在国民经济中占有主导地位的油气企业同时也是造成环境污染的主体之一,建立油气企业环境会计制度有着极其重要的现实意义。本文针对油气企业环境会计应用现状,运用环境会计基本理论,对企业环境会计核算方法及其信息披露模式进行了探讨,以期为油气企业环境会计实践提供理论依据和具体方法,推动油气企业环境会计建设的进程。     

USING HAPPINESS DATA FOR ENVIRONMENTAL VALUATION: ISSUES AND APPLICATIONS

Abstract.  In addition to standard methods of environmental valuation, a novel approach has recently emerged which models individuals' self-rated happiness as a function of their incomes and the prevailing environmental conditions. The estimated relationship is used to calculate the trade-off people would be willing to make between income and environmental conditions, i.e. the increase in income necessary to compensate individuals for any given decline in environmental quality. While the basic idea is simple, the theoretical and empirical details may be complex, and they may vary from application to application. This paper discusses the relevant conceptual and methodological issues and reviews applications to air and water pollution, noise nuisance, climate parameters, and natural hazards.