Abstract

This study investigates the effect of environmental audit and sustainability reporting on the corporate performance of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria. It looks at the impact of sustainability reporting on both environmental audit and corporate performance. Secondary data from the annual reports and corporate websites of listed manufacturing companies in Nigeria were adopted. A panel OLS regression using fixed effects for 42 listed companies on the Nigerian Exchange Group over the period 2014–2024 was utilised. The findings revealed that environmental violation report (EVR), regulation compliance (RGC), risk assessment (RAM), risk disclosure (RDC), and governance structure (GST) have positive and significant effects on stock price. Governance structure demonstrated the strongest influence on corporate performance. In contrast, employee training and awareness (ETA) showed a negative and insignificant result. In addition, sustainability reporting (STR), as a moderator, showed a positive and significant impact on its interaction with regulation compliance (RGC), risk assessment (RAM), risk disclosure (RDC), and governance structure (GST). However, the environmental violation report (EVR) was insignificant, while employee training and awareness (ETA) indicated a negative and significant result. The study concludes that effective environmental audits and sustainability reporting significantly enhance corporate market performance in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector, with governance and compliance mechanisms playing the most influential roles.