Do Board Characteristics Affect Banks’ Environmental Performance?

Abstract

This study empirically investigates the relationship between board characteristics (board size, board independence, Corporate Social Responsibility sustainability committee, board gender diversity, CEO duality, board-specific skills) and environmental performance (emissions, environmental innovation and resource use) of a sample of banks from different countries. In detail, we use an unbalanced panel dataset of 1,644 observations for 311 banks from the United States, Europe, the UK and Canada, over the period between 2015 and 2020. Through the Fixed Effect panel model and the generalized method of moments system version of the Arellano-Bond estimator, we find that both the percentage of women on boards and the presence of the CSR sustainability committee enhance the banks’ environmental performance. These findings are confirmed by all three sub-pillars of environmental performance, that is, emissions, environmental innovation and resource use. Our results shed light on the role that certain board characteristics play in improving the environmental performance of banks.