THE RELATIONSHIP OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE OF COMPANY: EVIDENCE FROM BIST COMPANIES

Purpose- There has been an increasing awareness about protecting the environment and contributing to sustainability, especially in recent years. This attitude increases the sensitivity that society expects from companies. The environmental performance of the organization plays a key role in establishing strong relations between the organization and the investor, improving the financial performance and maintaining the reputation of the company in the eyes of other stakeholders. At this point, it is expected from the board of directors, which is the top management body of the companies, to determine the strategies to be implemented regarding the environment, as in other organizational strategies. While the steps taken in social responsibility are effective in the success of the board, the success of the company depends on the effectiveness of the board and the decisions it makes. This study aims to reveal the effect of board characteristics on the environmental performance of the companies. Methodology- As a result of the preliminary literature review, size (number of board members), independence (ratio of indenpendent members) and diversity (ratio of women on boards) from the characteristics of the board were determined as the independent variables of the study. The dependent variable is environmental performance while the control variables are firm size and profitability (ROA). The research model created by using these variables was tested on the data obtained from a sample of companies listed in Borsa Istanbul. Data on the structure of the board and control variables were collected from the financial statements and annual reports of the companies announced on the Public Disclosure Platform. Environmental performance data was obtained from ESG (environment-social-governance) data released by Refinitiv (formerly known as Thomson Reuters). The study was conducted using only the environmental performance sub-dimension data. The data were analyzed in the Smart Pls. Findings- It is assumed that there will be a positive relationship between the number of board members, the ratio of female and independent members and the environmental performance of the company in the research model. However, none of the variables of the board structure provided statistically significant results on the environmental performance of the company. Thus, all of the research hypotheses were rejected. Conclusion- The literature refers that independent members can freely express their op