The Impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) on the Green Development of Listed Companies in China’s Agricultural and Forestry Industries

Anzhu Xue, Guang Yang () and Hui Wang
Additional contact information
Anzhu Xue: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Guang Yang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Hui Wang: School of Economics and Management, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 10, 1-26

Abstract: Corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance has become an increasingly critical driver of sustainable development. Investigating the impact of ESG performance on corporate green development is of great significance for achieving green transformation and sustainability goals. This study examines the effects and underlying mechanisms of ESG performance on the green development of Chinese A-share listed companies in the agricultural and forestry sectors from 2013 to 2023. The empirical results show that higher ESG performance significantly promotes corporate green development. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that this effect varies markedly across ownership structures, geographic regions, and levels of ESG rating uncertainty. Mechanism testing indicates that ESG performance fosters green development primarily through three pathways: stimulating green innovation, improving resource allocation efficiency, and enhancing the structure of human capital. In addition, by decomposing green total factor productivity, this study further quantifies the contribution of ESG performance to green growth. These findings offer new insights into the ESG–green development nexus and provide valuable policy implications for the green transformation and sustainable development of agricultural and forestry enterprises.

Keywords: ESG; listed companies; agricultural and forestry industries; green development; green total factor productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4648/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/10/4648/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:10:p:4648-:d:1658923

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().