Green institutional investors’ shareholding and corporate environmental responsibility

•The shareholding of green institutional investors promotes the environmental responsibility of listed companies.•The shareholding of green institutional investors has a more substantial facilitating effect on the environmental responsibility of non-state-owned enterprises.•The shareholding of green machine investors has a more vital role in promoting the environmental responsibility of non-heavy pollution industry enterprises. Data on listed companies in China from 2016 to 2022 serve as a research sample to investigate whether shareholding by green institutional investors improves the environmental governance performance and initiatives of listed companies. Shareholding by green institutional investors is shown to improve the environmental performance and initiatives of listed companies. The promotion effect of green institutional investors in improving the environmental performance of listed companies is more evident for non-state-owned enterprises and those in non-heavily polluted industries than their counterparts.