Financial health of sustainable companies

Abstract

Increasingly, companies are taking initiatives towards adopting sustainable practices to mitigate the negative social and environmental impacts that arise from their operations. To address the emerging needs of society, companies have started to change their business processes and have started releasing sustainability reports. Sustainable companies not only manufacture products that are sustainable and sourced ethically, but they also have established environmentally friendly production methods. Moreover, sustainable companies are important factors when considering the influence these companies have in fully changing the landscape of businesses' involvement and responsibility in the protection of the environment. For this study companies that were rated as the most sustainable companies for 2021 by SG Analytics and that also scored a high ESG score in the Refinitiv Eikon database. The companies were picked from different GICS industry codes to offer a better view of the financial health of companies that operate in different sectors and are subject to a different customer base. The financial reports of the selected companies were analyzed with a focus on their levels of liquidity and the financial structure to provide a clear image of how healthy these companies are from a financial perspective. Additionally, environmental considerations are provided for each company while analyzing the areas where the businesses conduct operations, with regards to challenges that might arise and impact the financial health of said companies in their future business endeavors. The study contributes to the body of knowledge in the field of corporate sustainability and corporate risk, utilizing a different methodology from the statistical studies in the field. The study employs accounting ratios and a risk management approach, analyzing the balance sheet, income statements, and cash flow statements for each company.