Environmental Responsibility as Strategic Capital: Rethinking Business Competitiveness in the Green Economy

This study presents an exploratory comparative case study of BYD and Tesla from 2023 to 2025 to examine when environmental responsibility may be interpreted as potential strategic capital. Using corporate reports, regulatory filings, and third-party market evidence, it assesses organizational embedding, relative market performance, and environmental counterevidence. At BYD, the clearest evidence lies in company-wide energy management. BYD’s battery-electric passenger-vehicle sales rose while its renewable indirect-energy share increased, but gross margin slipped and water withdrawal and hazardous waste grew. Tesla followed a different path. Its energy-storage deployments, segment revenue, gross margin, and global BESS position strengthened, although manufacturing credits reduced reported segment costs and company-wide emissions, water withdrawal, and waste remained above 2023 levels. The comparison identifies two partial pathways: BYD shows broader organizational embedding but weaker commercial attribution, whereas Tesla shows clearer cross-site scaling and market conversion but mixed company-wide environmental performance. These patterns are consistent with potential strategic capital without establishing durable causal advantage.