Benchmarking Sustainability: A Comparative Case Studies Analysis of ESG Practices in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Industry

What the paper says

This paper benchmarks the sustainability practices of 12 leading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies (2019-2023) through a two-stage comparative multiple-case study. The proposed integrative tri-axial framework conceptually aligns Life Cycle Assessment with the Environmental dimension, Indoor Environmental Quality with the Social dimension, and Corporate Social Responsibility with the Governance dimension. These lenses organize measurement and governance for ESRS-aligned comparability rather than conducting technical LCAs or IEQ experiments. Stage A synthesizes 168 publicly available documents to assess practices and regulatory readiness. Stage B pilots a standardized benchmarking framework that scores KPI presence, completeness across the environmental, social and governance dimensions, and performance evolution over time. Results show that environmental metrics are more mature and uniform than social and governance indicators. Disclosures emphasize inputs and processes over outcomes and impacts, and CSRD readiness is uneven and closely linked to governance capacity. Alignment with ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 is growing but remains insufficient for ESRS compliance without integrated and balanced reporting. The study makes two main contributions. First, it delivers an industry-wide comparative analysis of sustainability practices in the HVAC sector under the evolving CSRD/ESRS regime. Second, it contributes to management control research by introducing what appears to be the first sector-specific, theory-grounded benchmarking framework for ESG disclosure in this field.