In light of current climate change discussions, this paper analyzes the effect of ownership structure on a firm’s environmental performance with a subsequent focus on corporate emission reduction. Based on a cross-national European sample consisting of 7384 firm-year observations between 2008 and 2017, this study explores the relationship between sustainable institutional investors and environmental performance. In line with prior research and embedded in an agency theoretical framework, the nature of institutional investors may act as a stimulating driver towards green business practices. Sustainable institutional investors are defined based on their signatory status to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and their (long-term) investment horizons. The first classification stems from a content-driven sustainability perspective, while the second is derived from temporal sustainability. The results indicate that sustainable institutional ownership is positively associated with a firm’s environmental performance. Further investigations reveal that sustainable institutional investor ownership is also positively associated with firms’ willingness to respond to the Carbon Disclosure Project. These results indicate a higher carbon-risk awareness in firms with greater sustainable institutional investor ownership. Our paper significantly contributes to prior empirical research on institutional ownership and environmental performance and offers useful theoretical and practical implications. It focusses on a still-underdeveloped research area, namely organizations and their relationships with the natural environment, including institutional equity ownership as a driver towards greener practices on a corporate level.

根据当前的气候变化讨论，本文分析了股权结构对企业环境绩效的影响，随后重点关注企业减排。本研究基于由 2008 年至 2017 年间 7384 家公司年观察组成的跨国欧洲样本，探讨了可持续机构投资者与环境绩效之间的关系。根据先前的研究并嵌入代理理论框架，机构投资者的性质可能会成为绿色商业实践的刺激驱动力。可持续机构投资者的定义基于其签署联合国负责任投资原则的地位及其（长期）投资前景。第一个分类源于内容驱动的可持续性观点，而第二个来自时间可持续性。结果表明，可持续的机构所有权与公司的环境绩效呈正相关。进一步的调查显示，可持续的机构投资者所有权也与企业响应碳信息披露项目的意愿呈正相关。这些结果表明，拥有更多可持续机构投资者所有权的公司具有更高的碳风险意识。我们的论文对先前关于机构所有权和环境绩效的实证研究做出了重大贡献，并提供了有用的理论和实践意义。它专注于一个仍然不发达的研究领域，即组织及其与自然环境的关系，