When I teach sustainability, I include culture and social justice. Therefore, I was interested to read a recent article by Demiralay, Kilincarslin, and Li (2025) on how LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion relates to corporate environmental performance.
They looked at 893 US firms between 2010 and 2023. They considered the general political environment, specifically looking at whether the state had allowed same sex marriage prior to the federal ruling in 2015. As well, they looked at individual companies policies and environmental performance.
Their findings show that companies with higher levels of inclusion had better environmental performance. This was influenced by both state environments and the specific company culture.
The next question is why would this be the case. Is it simply correlation in that companies that are more inclusive are also more likely to set pro-environmental policies or is there a causal relationship? The authors suggest that it is, at least in part causal arising primarily from the role of innovation.
Other research has shown that more diverse groups are able to develop more innovative ideas and solutions. LGBTQ+ inclusion is part of creating more diverse groups. This is supported by the evidence that at least some of the higher corporate environmental performance arose from innovation.
Beyond innovation, LGBTQ+ inclusion was also connected with stronger efforts to reduce emissions and increased use of renewable energy. This, the authors suggest, may be related to a few factors including increased job satisfaction leading to improved performance and commitment, potential improved firm performance due to competitive advantage, and increased support for pro environmental actions as indicated by factors such as higher general support and belief in climate change.
My next question is whether other inclusive policies contribute the same or similar improvements in environmental performance.
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