Abstract

This study examined the effect of environmental sustainability on corporate performance from shareholders perception. The activities of companies had usually adverse impacted the environment. Business organisation and the environment cannot exist in isolation without demands for each other. Sustaining the environment where businesses operate create value for the organisation. Theoretically, shareholders are concern about returns on the short term while environmental sustainability is concern about meeting future needs of the stakeholders based on present use of the ecosystem. Therefore, managers of manufacturing companies are concerned with how to maximize the wealth of shareholders while engaging in environmental sustainability. This necessitated the study. The study adopted ex-post facto and content analysis research design. The population of this study is made up of 35 quoted manufacturing companies listed on Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as at the end of June, 2018. Purposive sampling technique was adopted in selecting the sample size of 12 companies that were able to meet up with the criteria. Secondary source of data was used. Corporate performance was measure by proxy of financial performance (EPS). Environmental sustainability was measured by considering guidelines as stated in GRI and NSE sustainability framework in relation with the environmental practices disclosed in the annual reports. Control variable is company size. The study adopted descriptive statistics and pooled Ordinary Least Square (OLS) to analyse the data. The result of the study indicated that there is a positive relationship between environmental sustainability and corporate performance. The study recommends that in making decisions on which organisation to invest in, investors should not consider individually environmental sustainability practices or the size of quoted manufacturing firms in Nigeria, rather, consider them alongside social sustainability practices, governance sustainability practices and other financial sustainability practices.