Are financial and demand constraints from the pandemic restricting firms’ investments? Did businesses lack managerial capabilities to enable the adoption of greener managerial practices? Measuring green energy managerial practices Specifically, using detailed firm-level data, we try to answer the following questions. In this blog, we analyze green energy managerial practices and investments in five EU countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Poland, and Romania) using data from the World Bank’s COVID-19 Business Pulse Survey and assess how during the recovery from the pandemic (March-September 2022) firms have behaved, what factors have limited their choices, and which ones have enabled them higher investments and organizational upgrading. The upgrading of energy efficiency and the green transition can operate through different pathways: the adoption of green managerial practices and new investments in green technologies. Policy discussions on green technologies adoption at the firm-level have been increasingly more pronounced since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2021, given the EU’s dependence on imported energy sources.

In the recovery after the unprecedented COVID-19 shock and the context of high energy prices, European businesses have the opportunity to jump on a recovery path consistent with the net-zero targets through the adoption of green technologies and managerial practices.

Adoption of green technologies and improvements in energy efficiency can help firms reduce operating expenses, improve profit margins and employees’ productivity.

World regions in global context