Huge generation of oil palm biomass has stimulated the development of biorefineries for synthesis of bioproducts. By targeting the palm oil industry and the biorefineries as the consumers of these products, a sustainable circular economy can be created by recycling the biomass wastes to the said consumers. To evaluate the techno-economic feasibility of the sustainable circular economy, a mathematical model demonstrating the biomass network with consideration of recycling is developed in this work. Besides, Process Graph (P-graph) is incorporated to perform the combinatorial optimization of the biomass network, which targets three common resources: fertilizer, steam, and electricity for regeneration and recycling. Although the result shows that the linear economy model is preferred in terms of profitability, the circular economy model shows potential in reducing 39.292% of the imported steam and 13.469% of the imported electricity, while being 0.642% lower in terms of the gross profit. Three scenarios are then proposed to identify the potential bottleneck that can hinder the implementation of the sustainable circular economy approach, with the aid of sensitivity analysis. This work is expected to benefit the biomass-based industry sectors and the policymakers on future development and transition to the sustainable circular economy.

Climate change, resource scarcity, and an aging population are the most concerning global issues in recent decades. One of the best methods to manage and mitigate these problems while continuing to boost the economies and offer opportunities for the growing world population is sustainable development. As Malaysia is one of the major oil consumers in the world, the sustainability of palm oil has been controversial. Several sustainability standards are introduced to ensure the balance performance in terms of economic, environmental, and social performance of the industry. Nonetheless, the social aspect of the sustainability of palm oil has received relatively less emphasis as compared with the economic and environmental aspects. Literature, experts, and anecdotal evidence often claim that it is due to the complication in assessing and evaluating social factors and impacts. Thus, this work aims to fill the gap in the literature on social sustainability for the palm oil industry both in terms of methods and facets. Suggested facets and their implication can enrich the theoretical contribution of this field while providing a comprehensive profile of the social sustainability of the palm oil industry. The outcomes can also be adopted by policymakers and industry stakeholders to assess, manage, and enhance the social sustainability of the industry.

Amid growing global concerns regarding sustainable governance, understanding the drivers of ESG disclosure is vital for promoting transparency and responsible corporate behavior. This study examines the peer effects of ESG disclosure among 32,187 observations from Chinese A-share listed firms between 2010 and 2021. This research employs an instrumental variable approach based on stock-specific idiosyncratic returns estimated via the Carhart four-factor model to address endogeneity concerns. The results confirm significant peer effects, suggesting that firms adjust ESG practices in response to their industry counterparts. These effects are significantly moderated by firm-level characteristics, including information asymmetry, corporate reputation, and market competition, as well as by external conditions such as economic policy uncertainty, business environment volatility, and institutional quality. This research defines peer groups by industry affiliation and conducts robustness tests using ESG risk clustering to address classification bias. This study contributes to the literature by strengthening causal inference and refining the understanding of peer-driven ESG behavior by integrating institutional theory, signaling theory, and information economics. The findings offer practical implications for policymakers, investors, and corporate managers seeking to promote ESG convergence through peer-driven incentives in diverse regulatory contexts.

As ESG practices become increasingly embedded in global capital markets, their impact on firm financing costs remains an open question in emerging economies, where regulatory divergence and rating inconsistency complicate investor perceptions, particularly in China’s rapidly evolving financial environment. This study examines the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on financing costs among Chinese non-financial listed firms, with a focus on the moderating roles of financial regulation and ESG rating divergence. Using a panel dataset of 4493 firms across 33,773 firm–year observations from 2011 to 2022, we employ a two-way fixed effects model, along with Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Differences (PSM-DID) techniques, to address endogeneity concerns and enhance causal inference. The findings reveal that improvements in ESG performance significantly reduce financing costs, substantially affecting debt relative to equity. Moreover, the cost-saving benefits of ESG are amplified in industries with stronger regulatory oversight, while high ESG rating divergence undermines these benefits by increasing uncertainty. These results highlight the importance of standardizing ESG rating systems and enhancing regulatory consistency. Such efforts can lower capital costs and improve financial access for firms, particularly in capital-intensive and environmentally sensitive sectors, offering actionable guidance for policymakers shaping disclosure frameworks and corporate managers optimizing ESG investment strategies.

Producing sustainable biodiesel from oil crops has been a great challenge, especially for oil crops plantations that involve various small and medium stakeholders. Differences in plantation activities and environments create a unique sustainability profile for each oil crop that may impose more sustainability issues such as deforestation problems in oil palm plantations. This paper embraced the unique sustainability index profile of each oil crop, and an investigation was performed to evaluate the feasibility of integrating multiple oil crops into the existing biodiesel refinery to improve its economic and sustainability performances. The selection of the process feed is proposed to be based on oil crop properties such as iodine value, peroxide value and saturated and unsaturated fatty acid contents. The sustainability profiles considered in the study include deforestation, oil yield, fertiliser impact, water impact and carbon footprint. Case studies demonstrated that a more balanced sustainability index profile could be achieved at a higher production cost—from USD 6.43 billion·y⁻¹ in a cost-saving-centric solution to USD 39.90 billion·y⁻¹ in a sustainability-improvement-centric solution. The study provided excellent insight into the impact on production cost to achieve sustainability which can help stakeholders to evaluate the feasibility of integrating multiple oil crops in the system.