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The aim of this paper is to create an industrial corporate social responsibility practices index (ICSRPI) that allows us to determine the level of sustainable business commitment in the main industries. The ICSRPI allows simplification and quantification of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices; identification of those industries which present greater deficiencies in sustainability systems to facilitate the planning of various improvement actions; and provision of pertinent information on environmental and social issues to guide stakeholders in their decision‐making processes. In this sense, empirically, the ICSRPI reveals that companies from more polluting sectors, such as oil and gas, chemical, paper or mining, are perceived as having high environmental risk and are the leaders in sustainable development. Companies from less polluting sectors, such as the media or financial services, have lower CSR scores; however, they present high values in social issues, giving higher priority to business ethics and the rights of employees.

Abstract:The aim of this study is to analyze the environmental performance of countries and the variables that can influence it. At the same time, we performed a multivariate analysis using the HJ-biplot, an exploratory method that looks for hidden patterns in the data, obtained from the usual singular value decomposition (SVD) of the data matrix, to contextualize the countries grouped by geographical areas and the variables relating to environmental indicators included in the environmental performance index. The sample used comprises 149 countries of different geographic areas. The findings obtained from the empirical analysis emphasize that socioeconomic factors, such as economic wealth and education, as well as institutional factors represented by the style of public administration, in particular control of corruption, are determinant factors of environmental performance in the countries analyzed. In contrast, no effect on environmental performance was found for factors relating to the internal characteristics of a country or political factors.

The complexity of the business world and current business models has motivated an increasing number of companies to disclose corporate information through sustainability reports. This reporting and stakeholders engagement may bring shared value to business and society in general although working towards sustainable development goals. This work adopts a new analytical approach by determining the global reporting initiative indicators related to labour practices and decent work, human rights, society, and product responsibility that are reported less frequently by companies. The final

Biotic interactions can improve agricultural productivity without costly and environmentally challenging inputs. Micromonospora strains have recently been reported as natural endophytes of legume nodules but their significance for plant development and productivity has not yet been established. The aim of this study was to determine the diversity and function of Micromonospora isolated from Medicago sativa root nodules. Micromonospora-like strains from field alfalfa nodules were characterized by BOX-PCR fingerprinting and 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The ecological role of the interaction of the 15 selected representative Micromonospora strains was tested in M. sativa. Nodulation, plant growth and nutrition parameters were analyzed. Alfalfa nodules naturally contain abundant and highly diverse populations of Micromonospora, both at the intra- and at interspecific level. Selected Micromonospora isolates significantly increase the nodulation of alfalfa by Ensifer meliloti 1021 and also the efficiency of the plant for nitrogen nutrition. Moreover, they promote aerial growth, the shoot-to-root ratio, and raise the level of essential nutrients. Our results indicate that Micromonospora acts as a Rhizobia Helper Bacteria (RHB) agent and has probiotic effects, promoting plant growth and increasing nutrition efficiency. Its ecological role, biotechnological potential and advantages as a plant probiotic bacterium (PPB) are also discussed.