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Volume 4, Issue 2, 2025

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The inadequate disclosure of environmental sustainability performance by polluting firms has led to significant information asymmetry between corporations and stakeholders, which in turn has contributed to investor apathy, diminished economic success, and increased community opposition. This study examines the effects of environmental sustainability performance disclosure on the profitability of firms, specifically focusing on the consumer goods manufacturing sector in Nigeria. The research is anchored in Stakeholder Theory and adopts a correlational research design. Data were obtained from the annual reports of thirteen listed consumer goods manufacturing companies over a period of thirteen years (2012-2024). Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction is positively associated with profitability. Similarly, the disclosure of environmental waste management practices is significantly related to improved corporate profitability. However, the disclosure of water management practices revealed a significant negative relationship with profitability. The findings suggest that the disclosure of environmental sustainability practices, such as GHG emissions reduction, waste management, and water consumption reduction, plays a crucial role in enhancing both environmental sustainability and long-term financial performance. While GHG reduction was found to have a direct financial benefit, waste management strategies necessitate a shift from compliance-based approaches to innovation-driven practices. Water management, on the other hand, requires better alignment with industry-specific realities to effectively contribute to profitability and sustainable growth. These findings underscore the importance of transparent environmental performance disclosure as a driver of both ecological sustainability and financial success for firms operating in the consumer goods manufacturing sector.

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This study investigates the exponential growth of plastic waste, a critical global environmental concern exacerbated by rapid population expansion. It examines the packaging plastic value chain by focusing on associated environmental impacts, challenges, and opportunities for advancing a circular economy (CE). The objectives are to trace the evolution of the CE concept, identify key opportunities and implementation barriers, and devise strategies for enhancing its effectiveness. Through a systematic literature review and qualitative interviews, the research delineated the complexities in the lifecycle of post-consumer packaging plastics. The findings highlighted that CE efficacy was significantly influenced by interrelated factors, including product design, consumer behaviour, collection systems, sorting efficiency, and economic viability of mechanical and chemical recycling pathways. Although CE models are promising, this research indicated that the complete elimination of plastic waste remained an uncertain goal. The study, therefore, advocated a comprehensive transformation of the plastic value chain, necessitated by challenges such as heterogeneous waste streams, inconsistent quality of recycled output, and competing economic factors. It is concluded that strategic investments in research, recycling-friendly design, advanced recovery methods, and efficient sorting are essential for producing cost-effective and high-quality recycled products, thereby moving beyond incremental efforts toward a systemic solution.

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Green growth practices in avocado farming involve balancing economic productivity, environmental sustainability, and social inclusiveness. These practices could boost resource efficiency, conserve biodiversity, and minimize environmental degradation. While global demand for avocados is increasing, there is little understanding of the factors influencing farmers’ willingness to adopt green growth practices and the factors affecting avocado yields amid market pressures as well as insufficient information and inadequate resources. Therefore, this study investigated the current practices used by farmers and the factors influencing the adoption of green growth practices and avocado yields in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) region, specifically in Rungwe District. A cross-sectional research design and multistage sampling helped select targeted avocado farmers, from whom data was collected via questionnaires and surveys. Results of descriptive statistics showed that 82% of the interviewed farmers were male and 67% of them had primary education. Farmers identified mulching and the use of organic fertilizer as primary green growth practices. Regression analysis performed by SPSS version 27 was the main analytical method. Binary logistic regression indicated that larger avocado farm size, access to information, and perception of larger avocado demand significantly influenced the adoption of green growth practices; meanwhile, gender showed a marginally significant effect. Multiple linear regression further revealed that tree age significantly impacted avocado yields whereas chemical fertilizer decreased yields. The findings emphasized the importance of targeted interventions to improve knowledge dissemination and training of sustainable agricultural practices to enhance productivity in avocado farming.

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This study constructs a comprehensive evaluation framework encompassing the ecological transformation of industrial structure, the degree of energy consumption structure optimization, and their respective evolutionary characteristics. Employing a vector autoregression (VAR) model, the paper systematically investigates the dynamic coupling relationship between industrial ecological evolution and energy structure optimization in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. The findings indicate that the region has experienced a sustained improvement in the ecological orientation of its industrial structure, alongside a significant degree of spatial interdependence. In the long term, industrial ecologization exerts a notable positive influence on the optimization of the local energy consumption structure. In the short term, energy structure optimization in Beijing and Tianjin generates effective feedback that further facilitates their own industrial ecological upgrading. Distinct differences are observed across the three sub-regions in terms of evolutionary pathways and adjustment mechanisms, highlighting the critical role of regional functional positioning in shaping the coupled evolution of the industrial–energy system. The study not only enriches the empirical understanding of ecological economic interactions at the regional scale, but also offers theoretical guidance and policy insights for advancing low-carbon, green, and coordinated development across the BTH region.

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With the application of digital technology in the political sphere, the concept of digital governance has emerged as a novel approach to governing. This study focuses on digital governance in rural China and examines its impact on agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) based on the provincial-level data from 2011 to 2022. To measure digital governance in rural China, we select four sub-indexes and employ the entropy weight method. Then, the Instrumental variable two-stage least squares (IV-2SLS) method is utilized to analyze the impact of rural digital governance on AGTFP, which is assessed using the directional distance function and global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index. The results show that digital governance in rural China has a positive effect on AGTFP. The increase in rural digital governance by 0.1 leads to a corresponding increase of 0.0045 in AGTFP. The mechanism analysis reveals that the farmland transfer rate and the soil erosion control areas positively mediate the relationship between rural digital governance and AGTFP. Our research findings enhance the overall comprehension of rural digital governance in China and its potential for generating positive outcomes.
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