Corporate sustainability and risk

Abstract

This study analyses the relationship between corporate sustainability and corporate risk. Different grades of sustainability are constructed from the inclusion of companies into sustainability indices and the number of years included. The grades are measured against variables of expected and unexpected risk and drivers of a sustainable company’s risk (sustainability risk). Based on the assumption that the level of sustainability impacts upon the dimension of risk, a sample of 167 European companies and different subsamples are assessed on available accounting data. However, the findings do not provide any clear evidence, suggesting that companies, once rated as sustainable, display similar patterns of risk and that a high degree of sustainability may be achieved without adverse impacts on risk and risk-adjusted return.