Going green is an essential step towards environmental conservation and preservation since it means pursuing of knowledge and practices which can lead to more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible decisions and lifestyles that protect the environment together with sustaining resources for current and future generations (Kristie, 2017, para. 5). Various scholars have suggested several forces which are impacting the sustainability efforts for companies going green. Although not all authors agree on one set of factors which motivate companies to go green, three motivational factors have been frequently mentioned. The first factor is on legal compliance while the second one indicates that companies are going green because executives feel it is a responsible thing to do. The last element is in support of a business case which refers to the idea that companies shall do what is good for the organisation regarding financial opportunities and competitive advantage. According to Unruh and Ettenson (2014) indicates that going green is the newest technique where most companies are doing it for gaining competitive advantage in the market. The factors of going green leading to competitive advantage include the ability to enhance the corporate and brand image of the service or product, catering to the environmentalists as well as reducing production cost because of using fewer resources.

Besides, Esty and Winston (2016) denote that for any company which first adopts green technology can create a good image in the consumers’ minds as ‘environmentally conscious’ organisation. First, the cost advantage allows companies to save funds which can be further utilised for innovating the present technology that would lead to better efficiency, differentiated products as well as catering the environmentalist niche which is bound to purchasing products and services by the organisation using green technology for production processes.