Green accounting standards and environmental sustainability in Alkharj: Mediating role of social performance

Abstract

The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) initiated the standards for sustainability and transparency in corporate reporting, which may be termed Green Accounting Standards (GAS). GAS encourages sustainable decision-making among businesses and practitioners. The present study explores the role of GAS on environmental sustainability in the firms located in the Alkharj governorate. Moreover, the mediating of social performance is also investigated in the relationship between GAS and environmental sustainability. For this purpose, a questionnaire is used to collect the data from accounting practitioners, and 224 valid responses are collected from the survey. The results of PLS-SEM show that GAS improves the environmental sustainability and social performance of the firms. Moreover, social performance also improves environmental sustainability. Thus, GAS promotes resource efficiency by tracking resource use and waste generation, which could be helpful in identifying opportunities for reducing environmental footprints. Thus, it also facilitates monitoring environmental performance in Alkharj to identify the areas needing improvement. Furthermore, GAS also improves social performance by recognizing social costs and engaging stakeholders, which are also facilitating more socially responsible decisions. Based on the results, the study recommends the firms in Alkharj governorate adopt GAS to improve environmental sustainability and social performance.