ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Organ. Psychol.
Sec. Performance and Development
Volume 3 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/forgp.2025.1521537
This article is part of the Research TopicIncreasing Environmental Sustainability in Organizations with Systems ResearchView all articles
Survival of the Greenest: Environmental Sustainability and Longevity of Organizations
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
- 2East China Normal University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 3University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, United States
- 4Baruch College (CUNY), New York City, New York, United States
- 5Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
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Much research has been devoted to how environmental sustainability of organizations is related to organizational reputation and financial performance, but little is known about whether and how organizational environmental sustainability relates to longevity of organizations. We quantitatively examined the relation between organizational longevity and environmental sustainability of organizations, hypothesizing a positive relationship. Using two large samples of organizations-one from the U.S., and another from multiple regions (Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia, analyzed separately)-results indicate a significant, replicable positive relation between organizational longevity and environmental sustainability performance. Statistically controlling for organizational wealth and size of workforces did not appreciably diminish relations. Additionally, older organizations demonstrated better resource use and management, operational eco-efficiency, climate strategy, and environmental reporting. However, differences in innovation were less pronounced, though still favored older organizations. We discuss the implications for human resources and evolutionary theories of organizations, suggesting it is not the largest companies that endure, nor the wealthiest, but those most committed to environmental sustainability.
Keywords: Environmental Sustainability, ESG Ratings, Sustainable Development, Green Organizations, Company Age, Business History Conceptualization (lead), Methodology (equal), Data curation (equal), Data Analysis (supporting), Interpretation of Results (equal), Writingoriginal draft (equal), Writingreview and editing (equal), Yilei Wang: Conceptualization (supporting)
Received: 02 Nov 2024; Accepted: 10 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Haner, Wang, Ones, Dilchert, Yazar and Kaura. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Daria M Haner, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 19104, Pennsylvania, United States
Yilei Wang, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, Shanghai Municipality, China
Deniz S. Ones, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, St. Paul, United States
Stephan Dilchert, Baruch College (CUNY), New York City, 10010, New York, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.