Does Board Tenure Matter for Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

Does longer board tenure improve corporate environmental oversight through accumulated experience or reinforce strategic inertia? Using 21,996 firm-year observations from 2739 U.S. listed firms over 2002–2023, we examine the association between average board tenure and corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Consistent with the inertia argument, we find that longer board tenure is associated with higher absolute emissions across Scope 1, Scope 2, upstream Scope 3 and aggregate emissions measures. However, the evidence for emissions intensity is mixed, with positive associations for Scope 2 and operational emissions intensity but not for Scope 1 or upstream Scope 3 intensity. Importantly, the association with absolute emissions weakens substantially after controlling for operating scale, while the intensity results suggest that larger carbon footprints do not necessarily imply proportionately less carbon-efficient operations. We also find that the positive association is stronger among smaller firms and those with higher values of the size–age financial-constraint index but weaker in environmentally exposed industries. These findings suggest that the relationship between board tenure and corporate emissions varies with firms’ operating characteristics and environmental context. Overall, our evidence highlights the importance of considering both corporate scale and emissions efficiency when assessing the environmental implications of prolonged board service.