Firms, recognizing their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), are becoming catalysts for societal change by integrating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria into their activities. The fashion industry exemplifies this effort, with an increasing number of companies embracing sustainability and ethical practices. In this context, our purpose is to provide a clear and comprehensive picture of the link between sustainability and business performance in the fashion industry. This work presents a Multivariate Regression Analysis, scrutinizing both external perspectives through stock prices and internal perspectives via profitability indices. Our aim is to discern the intricate relationship between sustainability practices and financial performance within the fashion industry, aligning ESG criteria with long-term economic success. Our regression analysis reveals a significant positive correlation between ESG scores and stock prices, indicating investor recognition of ESG performance as a crucial investment criterion. However, when focusing internally on profitability, the ESG score does not exhibit statistical significance, suggesting a yet-to-be-established connection between ESG policies and corporate profitability. This study underscores the evolving role of companies as sustainability promoters, emphasizing the crucial role of ESG performance in shaping investor perceptions. Nevertheless, it also highlights the need for further exploration into the intricate relationship between sustainable policies and corporate profitability. As businesses increasingly embrace sustainability, in fact, it could become paramount for informed decision-making and fostering ethical societal and environmental progress.

Cassava’s adaptability to different agroecological conditions, high yield, as well as its ability to thrive under harsh climatic conditions, makes it an essential food security crop. In South Africa, the cassava value chain is currently uncoordinated and underdeveloped, with a couple of smallholder farmers growing the crop for household consumption and as a source of income. Other farmers regard it as a secondary crop and hardly any producers grow it for industrial purposes. Hence, this study sought to analyze the determinants of household participation in the cassava value chain in South Africa. The study employed the multivariate probit model to analyze the determinants of household participation in the cassava value chain in South Africa, using a primary dataset collected through a simple sample method from smallholder farmers in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo provinces. Results show that livestock ownership has a positive and significant effect on the likelihood of farmers participating in the value chain by growing cassava for household food consumption. Also, findings reveal that hiring labour in cassava production and an increase in the yield during the previous season increases the probability of farmers’ interest in selling cassava tubers along the value chain. Hence, the positive and statistically significant influence of hiring labour during cassava production in driving the farmers’ interest in selling cassava tubers and cuttings implies that the development of the cassava value chain presents great opportunities for creating jobs (employment) in the country. Also, policy interventions that ensure land tenure security and empower farmers to increase their cassava yields are bound to encourage further participation in the value chain with an interest in selling fresh tubers, among other derived products to generate income. Lastly, programmes that empower and encourage youth participation in the cassava value chain can increase the number of farmers interested in selling cassava products.

Himalayan ‘Ecotone’ temperate conifer forest is the cradle of life for human survival and wildlife existence. Human intervention and climate change are rapidly degrading and declining this transitional zone. This study aimed to quantify the floristic structure, important value index (IVI), topographic and edaphic variables between 2019 and 2020 utilizing circular quadrant method (10m × 10m). The upper-storey layer consisted of 17 tree species from 12 families and 9 orders. Middle-storey shrubs comprise 23 species representing 14 families and 12 orders. A total of 43 species of herbs, grasses, and ferns were identified from the ground-storey layer, representing 25 families and 21 orders. Upper-storey vegetation structure was dominated by Pinus roxburghii (22.45%), while middle-storey vegetation structure was dominated by Dodonaea viscosa (7.69%). However, the ground layer vegetation was diverse in species composition and distribution. By using Ward’s agglomerative clustering technique, the floral vegetation structure was divided into three floral communities. Ailanthus altissima, Pinus wallichiana, and P. roxburghii had the highest IVI values in Piro–Aial (Group 2), Piwa–Quin (Group 3) and Aial–Qugal (Group 2). The IVI values for Aesculus indica, Celtis australis, and Quercus incana in Aial-Qugal (Group 2) were not determined. Nevertheless, eleven of these species had 0 IVI values in Piro–Aial (Group 2) and Piwa–Quin (Group 3). Based on the CCA ordination biplot, significant differences were observed in floral characteristics and distribution depending on temperature, rainfall, soil pH, altitude, and topographic features. Based on Ward’s agglomerative clustering, it was found that Himalayan ‘Ecotone’ temperate conifer forests exhibit a rich and diverse floristic structure.

The wide distribution of the common beech (Fagus sylvatica) in Europe reveals its great adaptation to diverse conditions of temperature and humidity. This interesting aspect explains the context of the main objective of this work: to carry out a dendroclimatic analysis of the species Fagus sylvatica in the Polaciones valley (Cantabria), an area of transition with environmental conditions from a characteristic Atlantic type to more Mediterranean, at the southern limit of its growth. The methodology developed is based on the analysis of 25 local chronologies of growth rings sampled at different altitudes along the valley, generating a reference chronology for the study area. Subsequently, the patterns of growth and response to climatic variations are estimated through the response and correlation function, and the most significant monthly variables in the annual growth of the species are obtained. Finally, these are introduced into a Geographic Information System (GIS) where they are cartographically modeled in the altitudinal gradient through multivariate analysis, taking into account the different geographic and topographic variables that influence the zonal variability of the species response. The results of the analyses and cartographic models show which variables are most determinant in the annual growth of the species and the distribution of its climatic response according to the variables considered.

Considering the need to adopt more sustainable agricultural systems, it is important that sweet potato breeding programs seek to increase not only root productivity, but also the productivity and quality of branches for silage production. The objective was to evaluate the genetic divergence and the importance of traits associated with the production and quality of branch silage in sweet potato genotypes. The experiment was conducted on the JK Campus of the Federal University of Vales do Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys in a randomized block design with 12 treatments and four repetitions. Twelve characteristics of branches and silage were evaluated. There was genetic variability between the genotypes, making it possible to select parents divergent for future breeding programs for silage production. The genotypes BD-54 and BD-31TO were the most divergent in relation to the others, being indicated its use in crossbreeding aiming the improvement of the culture for silage, once the high performance per se of all genotypes evaluated has already been verified in previous works. The characteristics Na, TDN and NDF were those that most contributed to the divergence.