Environmental Commitment: Do Firms Walk the Talk? An Exploratory Study of Italian Listed Companies

Abstract

This study investigates whether the recent surge in corporate disclosure of environmental commitment was followed by improvements in corporate environmental performance over time. Focusing on Italian listed companies in the period 2019–2022, the study analyzes the relationship between various forms of environmental commitment and carbon emissions, distinguishing between emission scopes and accounting for time lags. The findings show that in the short term, corporate disclosure is followed by improvements in indirect emissions, likely driven by the growing availability of off-the-shelf solutions, while direct emissions show no such alignment, raising concerns about potential greenwashing. In the medium term, substantial reductions in direct emissions are observed only among firms pledging carbon neutrality, whereas other forms of environmental commitment exhibit no meaningful association with performance improvements. These results suggest emissions' reductions require substantial time and effort and that certain corporate commitments may primarily serve a symbolic function. This research underscores the need to consider temporal dimensions and emission scopes when assessing disclosure–performance dynamics and identifying risks of greenwashing.