<p>A large body of research has examined the effect of digitalization on corporate environmental sustainability, yet empirical findings remain inconsistent and often conflicting. In particular, few studies have investigated this relationship from the perspective of ethics. To address these gaps, this study employs a meta-analytic approach to clarify why and how ethical contexts shape this relationship across countries and regions. By synthesizing evidence from 205 primary studies, we apply affordance theory to establish a robust positive relationship between digitalization and environmental sustainability at the firm level. Building on ethical climate theory, we further examine the moderating roles of ethical contexts: in terms of business ethics, high digital ethics embeddedness and self-reported environmental ethical commitments amplify this positive relationship; and in terms of social ethics, the positive relationship is pronounced for firms in countries with high-level ethical norms and social well-being. By expanding these results to a large sample of 312 primary studies, we develop a theoretical framework to further clarify the causality. We demonstrate that green innovation serves as a key mediating mechanism in the relationship between digitalization and corporate environmental sustainability while highlighting the heterogeneous effects across various forms of green innovation. Overall, this study advances current research on affordance theory and ethical climate theory by integrating ethical contexts into the digitalization–environmental sustainability relationship. It also provides practical insights to guide firms in designing their effective sustainability strategies and paying more attention to directly incorporating ethical considerations into their technology design in the digital era.</p>