The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the environmental sustainability strategies of listed firms in Sweden

Abstract

How macroeconomic crises affect firms' environmental sustainability strategies is an open question. We study the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the environmental sustainability strategies of firms listed on the OMXNasdaq stock exchange in Sweden. The analysis is based on a survey distributed twice, once during the summer of 2020 and once during the summer of 2021 with detailed questions related to the firms' environmental strategies. We find that most firms view the pandemic as an opportunity to strengthen their environmental strategies. However, we also find that the economic downturn caused most firms to redirect scarce resources away from environmental sustainability. We also find that firms which had adopted the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures were less likely to divert resources. These short-term results indicate that the pandemic will not enhance firms' environmental sustainability practices in the future.