Multi-criteria decision support based on iterative comparisons with reference points

Abstract

Small and medium sized enterprises have a wide influence in many economic sectors. They provide a substantial part of the jobs and goods while at the same time emitting huge amounts of pollutants. Existing research could prove that there is a lot of emission reduction potential available, but at the same time show that most enterprises do not implement cleaner production measures. One major obstacle is the absence of tools that provide easy to understand decision support for sustainability decisions in conjunction with corporate environmental management information systems, which also fit the requirements of small and medium sized enterprises. This article presents a multi-criteria decision support system and its integration into a corporate environmental management information system to overcome this barrier. The decision support approach is based on reference points, which makes it relatively easy to understand. Reference points may be adjusted by the decision maker in form of saturation levels to match his/her preferences more closely. To increase user acceptance the final results will be investigated with sensitivity analyses and an explanation system. This will enable decision makers in small and medium sized enterprises who have only a limited amount of time and are not familiar with the concept of multi-criteria decision making to implement the concept of cleaner production and examine whether the use of renewable resources or a cascade utilization of materials is beneficial.