Impact of environmental sustainability policies on firms’ performance: an explorative investigation in the italian mining sector

Raw materials have a considerable weight for the development but they are also strongly linked to environmental defacement. Although lots of studies investigate the triple bottom line theory and how sustainability can be a strategic asset to improve firms’ performance, in literature nobody focused on mining industry. This exploratory cluster analysis aims to understand whether Italian mining enterprises consider environmental sustainability and the corresponding reflection on firms’ performance. Evidences point out that for some respondents the adoption of green policies is mainly based on institutional goals. However, there are some enterprises that without a pure monetary return adopt environmental sustainability policies to reinforce their reputation.