Analysis of Environmental Sustainability Performance and its impact on the cost of equity in companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

Following the emergence of environmental issues and corporate responsibility to environmental performance, guidelines, principles and rules for companies are developed, which companies publish their environmental reports. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the status of environmental sustainability reporting and its relationship with the cost of equity in listed companies in Tehran Stock Exchange. In order to achieve the main objective of the research, after studying literature of research and experts’ opinion, 20 indicators were determined using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Then, by reviewing the content of the financial statements and reports of the board of directors of 134 companies, the reporting status of these indicators was reviewed during the years 2013-2017. Also, after collecting data about 79 companies, the research hypothesis was tested using panel data.The findings show that companies have better reporting on components of "raw materials, energy and water " than other components, but the level of environmental sustainability of companies is lower than the investigated ones. Also, contrary to theoretical literature of the research, environmental sustainability performance has a positive impact on cost of equity, which can be attributed to stock price volatility and ignoring specific company characteristics (such as management ability or employee skills) or the interaction of historical and future information