Creative Commons

This dissertation was written as part of the Executive Master’s in Business Administration at the International Hellenic University. In this thesis the connection between sustainability actions and corporate financial performance is investigated. Specifically, the construction sector is under the focus as it is one of the most environmental damaging sectors while sustainability practices are very slowly introduced in the industry. Analytically, based on actual data we are comparing 2 construction projects, one executed from 2013-2016 without any sustainability actions used and the other executed from 2017-2020 with very high priority in Environmental Social and Governance practices. In our research the ROSI (NYU Stern) framework is used as the main tool to quantify and monetize the benefits of the various sustainability practices. The results are overwhelming, we calculated a net benefit of around €20 million or 5.5% of the project value due to the sustainability actions adopted in the second project. We found that the mediating factor which acted as the most beneficial to the project was operational efficiency through the improved waste management and after the greater customer loyalty and improved sales and marketing, due to the establishment of sustainable product / service presence. This thesis has as an objective to be used as a guide for academics and professionals from the construction industry showing how the monetary value of sustainability actions can be estimated easily so that the ESG practices can be seen not as a luxury and an additional cost but on the contrary as financially beneficial actions which add value to the firm, environment and society.