Design of Innovative Research Procedure Concerning Environmental Responsibility of Banks and Their Financial Effectiveness in the Context of Implementation of the Directive 2014/95/EU

Recent trends have shown an increased involvement in sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and pro-ecologic activities in modern economies, both in the European Union and outside its structures. This interest has largely been stimulated by the formal legislative regulations introduced in the broadly defined area of prosocial behaviours. One of the most important regulations in this context is the 2014/95/EU directive on disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups. In Poland, an estimated 250–300 separate entities, along with the estimated 6000 of entities registered in the EU area, shall soon be legally obliged to meet the requirements of the above directive. A similar approach can also be found in the recent addition to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland regarding protection of natural environment based on the principles of sustainable development (art. 5 of the Constitution). In association with the above legal determinants of economic activities that apply to modern financial institutions, this paper represents an attempt at presenting a new conceptual approach to research and evaluation of corporate ecologic responsibility of banks in relation to their financial effect. To meet this study’s main objective, this publication presents an innovative procedure that can be employed for the evaluation of banking institutions’ involvement in activities designed to protect natural environment and its resources. The presentation of this innovative procedure is the main aim of the paper. Based on literature studies of domestic and foreign publications on the subject, the problem under examination was placed in the context of the applicable legislative norms and standards of the EU and their implementations in local (i.e. Polish) legal system. The paper is composed of five sections. Following the introductory remarks, the second section presents a justification for the selection of the central research objective in reference to local and foreign professional publications on the subject under study. The third section presents an overview of research objectives and research hypotheses employed in the process. Section 4 describes the investigation plan with detailed presentation of the postulated procedure for the evaluation of banks’ pro-ecologic activities and presentation of reasoning behind the selection of research methods employed. The last section provides a summary of deliberations contained in previous sections of the paper.