Designing a Green Banking Model with an Emphasis on Bank Performance Sustainability

Introduction
Today's world is facing a series of environmental crises, many of which are the result of a series of policies and excessive exploitation of natural resources and the discharge of various pollutants resulting from human activities into the environment. In the meantime, banks have a direct and indirect contribution to the environmental and climate crisis that has occurred. Therefore, banks around the world are forced to implement green banking initiatives to reduce environmental impacts and promote sustainability. Green banking is a concept that has attracted increasing attention in recent years due to the efforts of financial institutions to deal with environmental and social challenges while being profitable, and it refers to the integration of environmental and social considerations into banking operations and services with the aim of promoting sustainable development and reducing climate change. Adopting green banking policies and measures will help the bank to deal with operational risks and performance sustainability. A study of the research background shows that few studies have been conducted in the country on green banking and the sustainability of bank performance as a result of green banking has been studied less. The present study aims to design an appropriate green banking model with an emphasis on performance sustainability.
 
Methodology
The present study is a qualitative research. The participants in the study include academic experts and organizational experts. The sample size was 27 people based on the principle of theoretical saturation. Data analysis was conducted using the grounded theory methodology, which is based on the three-dimensional paradigm of Strauss and Corbin, including conditions, action and interaction, and consequence. In the systematic design of grounded theory, three stages of open, axial, and selective coding should be performed to analyze the collected qualitative data, so that finally, a logical paradigm or an objective image of the created theory is presented. After analyzing the data obtained from the interviews, four criteria of credibility, transferability, reliability, and confirmability were used to increase scientific accuracy and validate the model and research results.
 
Findings
Open coding: First, the text of each interview was studied and analyzed sentence by sentence. Each sentence or set of sentences that contained a specific meaning was assigned an appropriate code. In the second stage of open coding, the initial codes were refined after each interview and, considering the similarity and similarity with other discovered codes, were placed under a larger concept, and as a result, 161 concepts were created from a total of 1155 open codes.
Axial coding: In this stage, 161 concepts resulting from open coding were placed in the form of 21 categories. Then, to discover how the categories are related to each other, the researcher used the paradigm and the concepts obtained from the open coding stage were linked together in the form of conditions, actions and interactions, and consequences in the form of a paradigm model. In this stage, 21 categories were placed in 3 classes.
Selective coding: The green banking model in Bank Shahr is as follows: "The drivers of green banking implementation include the environmental crisis and climate change, changing societal demand, public pressure on banks and banks' legal obligations, and the enablers of green banking implementation include technology and innovation development, bank organizational capabilities, bank green infrastructure, and policymaking and supervision as conditions that have led to the necessity of green banking implementation. Enablers also play a moderating role, and without them, the impact of drivers on key green banking categories will be incomplete or ineffective. If green banking implementation action and interaction are applied, which include green human resource management, green management and leadership, green marketing, waste management, resource and energy management, green financing, green services and products, green processes, green strategy, and green customer management, it can lead to the emergence of sustainable bank performance outcomes in the three dimensions of economic performance, social performance, and environmental performance."
Discussion and Conclusion
Conditions for Realizing Green Banking: Based on the research results, the conditions for realizing green banking, with an emphasis on the sustainability of performance in Bank Shahr, consist of two main categories of drivers and enablers for realizing green banking. Green banking drivers are pressures that push banks to implement environmentally friendly projects and include the environmental crisis and climate change, changing societal demand, public pressure, and banks' legal obligations. Green banking enablers are factors that enable the efficient flow of actions and services in the green banking process. Green banking enablers affect green banking performance through green banking practices and include technology and innovation, organizational capabilities, green infrastructure, and policymaking and supervision.
Action-Interactions for Realizing Green Banking: The results showed that the practices of implementing green banking with an emphasis on performance sustainability in Bank Shahr consisted of 10 main categories: green human resource management, green management and leadership, green marketing, waste management, resource and energy management, green financing, green services and products, green processes, green strategy, and green customer management. Green banking practices are specific approaches, processes, and initiatives that financial institutions have used to promote sustainability and environmentally responsible practices in their operations and services.
Consequences: Consequences are the results of the implementation of green banking in Bank Shahr, which consists of 3 main categories: economic performance, social performance, and environmental performance. The sustainability of a business's performance is defined as a strategy aimed at achieving long-term economic well-being, ecological sustainability, and social stability for the organization and its members.
Finally, it is suggested that banks allocate significant amounts of their fund balance to green banking. In addition, it is required to create a separate unit for green banking so that the responsibility for designing, evaluating, and managing green banking issues lies with the bank's management.