Title: Analysis of factors associated with ESG performance of Brazilian cities

Authors: John Cesar de Souza; Vanderly Janeiro; George Lucas Moraes Pezzott

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, State University of Maringá, Brazil ' Department of Statistics, State University of Maringá, Brazil ' Department of Statistics, State University of Maringá, Brazil

Abstract: Environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria emerged in 2004 as a way to assess the performance of corporations in terms of environmental sustainability, social equity, and effective governance. Since then, many companies have embraced these criteria as a way to demonstrate their sustainable development. On the other hand, ESG criteria can be replicated in cities in order to contribute to a better quality of life for citizens, generate environmental sustainability, improve resilience, and attract investors to the city. In this context, this paper aims to analyse the sustainable performance of cities according to ESG criteria. The data are from Brazilian cities and they were constructed by the Competitiveness Ranking of Municipalities of the Center for Public Leadership. We analysed three editions (2021, 2022 and 2023) between 409 and 415 municipalities and applied a mixed-effects model for each index (ESG, E, S and G). The results show that the geographic region, the predominant economic sector, whether the city is a capital or not, per capita revenue, per capita companies and average salary are significant variables in defining the positioning of cities in the indicators, offering the profile of the cities with the best and worst performance in sustainable development.

Keywords: environmental, social and governance; ESG; sustainable cities; regression model; mixed effects models.

DOI: 10.1504/LAJMSD.2025.151052

Latin American Journal of Management for Sustainable Development, 2025 Vol.6 No.4, pp.374 - 391

Received: 20 Aug 2024
Accepted: 18 Feb 2025
Published online: 12 Jan 2026 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article