Measuring Firm Greenness: A Comprehensive Review of Corporate Sustainability Indicators

The major global challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, and resource scarcity have gained centrality in policymaking and academia, with a growing body of research exploring the interlinkages among economic growth, trade, environmental outcomes, and policy interventions. These analyses and theirresults draw fundamentally on the definitions used to consider a firm, product, or process “green,” and on the related operationalization. Despite a proliferation of empirical approaches, however, the literature lacks a comprehensive overview of firm-level sustainability indicators. This article addresses this gap by systematically reviewing existing definitions and the most frequently employed indicators Our analysis shows that, according to prevailing definitions of greenness, a firm can be considered green either because it is purpose-sustainable, meaning that it primarily serves an environmental purpose, or because it is process-sustainable, meaning that its activities reduce or prevent negative environmental impacts even if environmental goals are not its primary purpose. We further classify the existing firmlevel sustainability indicators into three groups: (1) product-level indicators; (2) resource and pollution management indicators; and (3) investment, innovation, and commitment indicators. Our findings aim to support researchers in selecting indicators that align with specific research objectives and dimensions of sustainability under investigation