Corporate Environmental Impact: Measurement, Data and Information

Abstract

As an organization’s environmental impact has become a central societal consideration, thereby affecting industry and organizational competitiveness, interest in measuring and analyzing environmental impact has increased. We develop a methodology to derive monetized environmental impact estimates in a comparable way across companies by applying characterization pathways and monetization factors to organization level environmental outputs, including carbon emissions, water use, and other emission types. The median environmental impact as a percentage of an organization’s sales (operating income), referred to as environmental intensity, is close to 2% (20%) and above 10% (100%) in 11 out of 67 industries suggesting a significant level of ‘hidden liabilities’ and potential for value erosion if environmental impacts are priced. Close to 60% (53%) of the variation in environmental impact scaled by sales (operating income) is driven by industry membership, while approximately 30% (36%) can be attributed to firm specific factors, with the rest of the variation driven by country and more granular industry classifications. Environmental intensity exhibits significant, yet moderate correlation with various environmental ratings across industries and no correlation within industries, and it is associated with lower corporate market valuation, lower stock returns, and higher risk, consistent with investors viewing environmental impacts as financially material and pricing them in some but not all industries.