Old financial instruments in new circular models: Applied envir- onmental accounting in the banking sector for reporting in a circular economy

The role of commercial banks and financial institutions has been described as crucial for the circular eco -nomy since they are key actors in financing companies and projects. The facilitating potential of some financial instruments managed by the financial sector has not been studied in connection to extending the circular economy in the environmental accounting framework. Particularly, the renting contracts service, which has been associated with more sustainable performance, shows interesting circular characteristics for servitization and the sharing economy.By studying the details of renting contracts of a financial institution over 18 years as a case study in Spain, this research demonstrates how this type of service, applied to vehicles, can render important benefits in terms of use of resources, environmental impact, energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. Measur-ing these quantitative impacts and reporting about them is important from an environmental accounting basis and in the framework of the European Union taxonomy for sustainable finance.The results obtained from the stakeholders perspective highlight the pivotal role of existing financial instruments and the need for new metrics for reporting linked to the servitization of the economy as a specific circular issue. This paper contributes to the academic literature by bringing empirical results to a still recent line of research. For practitioners, we provide innovative metrics for circular economy in the financial sector, and for policymakers, this research highlights the wider role of financial institutions in promoting circular economy within the sustainability framework.(c) 2023 ASEPUC. Published by EDITUM -Universidad de Murcia. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Commercial banks and financial institutions play a crucial role in the circular economy, but the potential of financial instruments managed by the sector in promoting circular economy has not been studied in relation to environmental accounting. By studying the details of renting contracts in Spain over 18 years, this research demonstrates the benefits of applying this service to vehicles in terms of resource utilization, environmental impact, energy efficiency, and reduced carbon emissions. The results highlight the need for new metrics for reporting on the servitization of the economy and the wider role of financial institutions in promoting circular economy.