The off-site exchange of environmental officials represents a pivotal initiative aimed at dismantling barriers within environmental institutional mechanisms. This paper investigates the impact of the off-site exchange of environmental officials on corporate green innovation, utilizing empirical data from non-financial enterprises listed on the A-share market in Shanghai and Shenzhen between 2015 and 2022. The findings indicate that the off-site exchange of environmental officials can enhance both the quantity and quality of corporate green innovation, evidenced by a significant rise in the total number of corporate green patent applications, as well as the number of green invention patent applications. The mechanism analysis reveals that the off-site exchange of environmental officials primarily promotes corporate green innovation by enhancing political promotion incentives and fostering environmental cooperation and communication; conversely, it does not hinder corporate green innovation by increasing environmental policy uncertainty or causing environmental policy discontinuity. Further analysis indicates that the effectiveness of the off-site exchange of environmental officials in promoting corporate green innovation is more pronounced under conditions of higher environmental decentralization, stronger media monitoring, non-state property rights, and lower agency costs. These findings underscore the effectiveness of the off-site exchange system for environmental officials, contribute to the research on environmental institutional factors influencing corporate green innovation, and offer crucial decision-making insights for the government to enhance this system to foster ecological civilization. Additionally, they provide corporations with guidance to optimize their green innovation strategies and strengthen their core competitiveness in sustainability.