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Despite several research evaluating the connection between sustainability and the bottom line of firms, the existing research is inconclusive. In addition, most studies focus on multinational firms based in the United States or Europe, while research in the context of emerging economies is scant. This paper endeavours to investigate the strength of the association between Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosure scores and the financial performance of 272 Indian firms listed on National Stock Exchange for the period 2015 to 2021 by employing panel data regression techniques. The results indicate that organisations having better ESG performance outperform their industry peers financially and are valued more by the market. Moreover, the data indicates that financial markets for lenders consider ESG disclosure when determining creditworthiness. In accordance with this, businesses can examine their operations and become more aligned with eco-friendly methods. Even though ESG disclosure appears to be associated with improved financial success, this is not the case across all industries and during COVID-19 pandemic. This study is relevant due to the growing significance of sustainability and the role of emerging nations in international commerce. It helps managers prioritize resource allocations to ESG-related activities that may affect financial performance differently across industry sectors, thus adding to the literature on the financial effects of ESG disclosures, particularly industry-specific aspects. This research represents a pioneering effort by assessing the impact of ESG disclosure on the profitability, market value, and cost of financing of Indian firms using both aggregation and disaggregation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sharing economy platforms hold a promise of more sustainable uses of resources. However, their legitimacy remains "debated" as various ecosystem stakeholders hold different opinions, challenging platform's values and activities. One key contested aspect is their capacity to contribute to sustainability beyond a search for economic performance. Despite these criticisms, sharing economy platforms have managed to grow and spread worldwide. Nevertheless, little is known about how a sudden market crisis affects an online platform characterized by a debated legitimacy. Studying the relationships between Airbnb and its main stakeholders during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, our paper identifies three relational strategies - identity, professionalization, and selection - implemented by the platform to reinforce its legitimacy within its local ecosystem. Based on secondary and primary data analyses, we identify and describe the arbitrations and opportunistic choices made by Airbnb to manage various stakeholder groups, to maintain its legitimacy during the COVID-19 crisis, and their impact on sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A safe and effective medical waste transport network is beneficial to control the COVID-19 pandemic and at least decelerate the spread of novel coronavirus. Seldom studies concentrated on a two-phase COVID-19 medical waste transport in the presence of multi-type vehicle selection, sustainability, and infection probability, which is the focus of this paper. This paper aims to identify the priority of sustainable objectives and observe the impacts of multi-phase and infection probability on the results. Thus, such a problem is formulated as a mixed-integer programming model to minimise total potential infection risks, minimise total environmental risks, and maximise total economic benefits. Then, a hybrid solution strategy is designed, incorporating a lexicographic optimisation approach and a linear weighted sum method. A real-world case study from Chongqing is used to illustrate this methodology. Results indicate that the solution strategy guides a good COVID-19 medical waste transport scheme within 1 min. The priority of sustainable objectives is society, economy, and environment in the first and second phases because the total Gap of case No.35 is 3.20%. A decentralised decision mode is preferred to design a COVID-19 medical waste transport network at the province level. Whatever the infection probability is, infection risk is the most critical concern in the COVID-19 medical waste clean-up activities. Environmental and economic sustainability performance also should be considered when infection probability is more than a certain threshold. • Two-phase COVID-19 medical waste transport with infection probability is studied. • A mixed-integer programming model to optimise sustainability is formulated. • A hybrid solution strategy is designed to solve the proposed multi-objective model. • The priority of sustainable objectives is society, economy, and environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains (SCs) have been exposed to their greatest disruption in recent memory. This unprecedented situation has given rise to the concept of SC survivability, which is based on the need to find a new temporary equilibrium allowing SCs to survive during extreme events. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the conceptualization of SC survivability by providing some basic foundations for this new concept. Our analysis shows that dealing with SC survivability requires a larger scale than those adopted for the analysis of SC resilience. To solve this issue, we propose a new framework called "Human Needs Supply chains". This framework shows the interdependencies between SCs, society, and the environment and enables a shift from the classical SC's product-profit view to a holistic view centred on the satisfaction of basic human needs. Another contribution of this research is to highlight the links between SC survivability, SC resilience, and SC sustainability. We show that the classical resilience capacities (i.e., absorptive, adaptive, and restorative) are not enough to deal with extraordinary and long-term disruptions such as COVID-19, and we propose an adaptation of the SC resilience concept to integrate a survivability capacity. Building resilience with a survivability capacity will allow SCs to stay alive in a temporary non-viable equilibrium of sustainability during a large disruption and to recover to a viable equilibrium at the end of the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether or not Italian Certified B Corps® in the fashion industry achieved levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance that are comparable to listed companies in the same industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. After a review of the literature concerning B Corps, CSR and the circular economy, as well as some coverage of pandemic impacts, a quantitative approach is used to analyze the data empirically. Based on the data available, the study incorporated the entire population of Italian listed companies and B Corps in the fashion industry. Moreover, this study confirms the relationship between CSR and financial performance. The availability of sustainability documents other than the required social responsibility report does not directly affect a company's profitability, but they are necessary for the long term. The results also confirm the positive relationship between sustainability certification and higher financial performance, as the most sustainable companies were also the most profitable. Certified B Corps® declare their willingness to adopt circular economic principles to the same extent as non-certified listed companies. Moreover, the results show that consumers mainly remember the information disclosed on a company's homepage; therefore, managers should publish more there. However, they should not underestimate the importance of their sustainability report because it is an effective social communication tool, especially in the long term. Finally, obtaining the B Corp certification will allow companies to inform stakeholders of their social responsibility and achieve higher financial results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 is the pandemic caused by one of the coronaviruses. This virus was not known before the outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. By January of 2020 it was declared to be a global human health crisis. The deaths and illnesses caused by the virus caused extensive fear and anxiety among people in all societies. The pandemic slowed economic activities nearly to a halt. The challenges of how companies should respond to the disruptions in their supply chains and how they can build more resilient systems, must be systematically addressed. The authors of this paper highlighted essential factors which can help companies to overcome this crisis and other types of crises, by learning from the approaches taken in India, which has a unique and diverse economic system. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique was used to identify the essential factors which can help companies to improve their resilience so they can recover during and after the COVID-19 pandemic era and potentially in other similar complex crises. The results of the AHP evaluation were prioritized by performing a sensitivity analysis to prioritise the essential factors. The "Role of governance" was found to be the most important factor that can be used to help in rebuilding industries and societies and in helping them to become more resilient to future severe shocks. The results of this research were used to develop recommendations for company managers, practitioners and policy-makers. The authors hope that this advice will help India to become a stronger nation with more resilient companies, which are better prepared to anticipate and to respond to future crises. We hope people in other nations will also benefit from the finding presented in this paper. Image 1 • Factors influencing rebuilding resilient industries and societies are proposed. • Focus is on measures to avoid disruption in supply chain in Indian context. • The ranking framework is developed using AHP followed by sensitivity analysis. • Role of governance reported highest rank indicating its importance in post COVID era. • Policy implications are derived to build resilient nation, which can face shocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 pandemic has shown that sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems is essential for the basic life needs of humankind. Logistics problems, shortage of resources and goods, a crisis of traditional energy systems, all these COVID-19 caused problems show that available resources should be used with caution. This paper is an introduction article to the Virtual Special Issue that discusses some of the latest developments in three research topic areas, namely Energy, Water and Environment. These research topics emerged from the four Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems Conferences held in 2020. The purpose of the introduction article is to provide a brief introduction to the field and the articles included in this Journal of Cleaner Production Virtual Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]