In this study, to accurately calculate the carbon footprint of silk products, key issues were analysed and discussed, including accounting boundary, accounting data, sequestration of greenhouse gases (GHG) and calculation of results. The results support the feasibility of "cradle to gate" or "gate to gate" as the accounting boundary for the carbon footprint of silk products. Accordingly, the quality of accounting data may be improved by determining the key emission sources of GHG within the accounting boundary, selecting the appropriate data allocation methods and maintaining the consistency of the allocation methods within the accounting boundary when necessary. The GHG sequestration of silk is explained separately in the results, which report on the carbon footprint of silk products. The carbon-neutral actions taken by silk enterprises are also discussed and quantified in the results of the carbon footprint calculation. Ultimately, it is found that a consistent accounting boundary and emission factors constitute two key prerequisites for the feasibility of carbon footprint quantification of various silk products.

In recent years, there has been a surge in interest in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors, prompting a need for systematic review and analysis of existing literature to address research limitations and identify future directions. This paper presents a bibliometric and content analysis of 2077 academic works in both Chinese and English languages. Drawing from data sourced from China Knowledge Network and Web of Science databases, this analysis spans the periods of 2012 to 2023 and 2007 to 2023, examining studies from local and global perspectives. Utilizing CiteSpace, the study explores keyword frequency, cluster view, and timeline view to elucidate progress and frontiers in ESG research. Findings reveal four primary themes: “ESG disclosure,” “corporate financial performance,” “ESG investment,” and “corporate sustainable development strategy.” Local literature emphasizes corporate ESG disclosure, while global literature focuses on corporate sustainability from entrepreneurial and investor perspectives. The study’s implications include global trends such as robust information disclosure systems, green finance advancement, ESG practice promotion, and refining stakeholder-corporate sustainable development relationships and ESG performance research. This study uniquely reviews ESG topics from dual perspectives, providing insight into literature evolution, research content, and avenues for future exploration in ESG.

This study develops a comprehensive carbon footprint assessment model that integrates forward and reverse logistics to evaluate and compare greenhouse gas emissions from online and offline apparel sales channels in China, with a particular focus on high return rates. The model quantifies emissions from transportation, packaging, storage, and operations, incorporating return and exchange logistics. The system boundary is limited to enterprise-controllable sales-phase activities and excludes consumer travel. Three sales models are compared: factory-to-consumer (F2C), traditional business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce, and brick-and-mortar retail (BMR). Within this defined boundary, BMR exhibits the lowest carbon footprint (0.296 kg CO₂e/item), followed by F2C (0.408 kg CO₂e/item) and B2C (0.602 kg CO₂e/item). Packaging dominates online emissions (55–57%), whereas store operations are the main contributor to offline emissions (43%). Return rates are identified as a decisive factor, accounting for over 31% of e-commerce emissions and potentially increasing them by 171.3% under extreme scenarios. Sensitivity analysis reveals that trunk line distance (factory to warehouse) has a greater impact on emissions than last-mile return route optimization. Relocating the factory closer to consumers reduces B2C transport emissions by 72.3%, whereas replacing conventional packaging with recycled plastic reduces total B2C emissions by 46.0%. These findings provide channel-specific sustainability strategies: return reduction and packaging innovation for online channels, and energy efficiency improvements for physical stores. These results are conditional on the defined system boundary. If consumer travel by private car were included, the relative advantage of offline channels would diminish or could reverse.