Multi-criteria Sustainability Assessment Research Articles

Multi-criteria sustainability assessment of solid waste management in Jordan

This study comprehensively evaluates Jordan's municipal solid waste (MSW) management sector from 2022 to 2030, in alignment with Jordan Vision 2030. This study introduces new sustainability indicators and innovative waste management alternatives to address the challenges of rapid industrialization and population growth. Four strategic scenarios—1) recycling, composting, and sanitary landfilling; 2) recycling, anaerobic digestion, and sanitary landfilling; 3) incineration and sanitary landfilling; and 4) sanitary landfilling alone—were assessed against the business-as-usual scenario. Using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and sensitivity analysis, this study evaluates net greenhouse gas emissions, annual operating expenses, revenue streams, and employment rates to measure environmental, economic, and social sustainability. The results indicate that Scenario 1 is the optimal scenario for integrating a material recovery facility (MRF) with a composting plant and sanitary landfill, achieving the lowest greenhouse gas emissions, annual costs, and employment opportunities. This study offers practical and sustainable solutions to Jordan's waste management challenges, provides novel insights through the developed MCDA and sensitivity analysis, and significantly contributes to sustainability research.

Integrating sustainability assessment tools with life cycle analysis for agroecological systems: A UK case study

CONTEXTLife cycle analysis (LCA) is increasingly used to assess the environmental impacts of primary food production. As an alternative, impacts can be assessed at the farm level using holistic sustainability assessment tools. OBJECTIVEThe purpose of this study was to evaluate whether an integrated approach combining a “detailed and narrow” LCA with a “broad and shallow” sustainability assessment could help integrate socioeconomic and ecosystem service evaluations in LCA by including a wide range of impact criteria. METHODSTo address this overarching objective, we present results from whole-farm sustainability assessments using the Public Goods Tool (PGT), a tool developed in the United Kingdom (UK) by the Organic Research Centre, and cradle-to-farm-gate LCAs of beef, carrots and tomatoes for (i) a diverse agroecological case study farm (CSF) and (ii) a specialised agroecological production system. The use of the PGT enabled comparison with similar UK farm systems and was extended to develop biodiversity and social indices to complement the LCA. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSResults of the CSF demonstrated a relationship between environmental impacts and increased production efficiency, as the climate change impact per kg of product was strongly associated with higher yields, but this was less clear when impacts expressed per ha. The CSF produced less beef than the specialised system but more tomatoes and carrots, which reflects its higher labour input and less intensive production methods. The CSF generally used fewer external inputs, which decreased its overall impacts. Purchased feed contributed disproportionately to the water consumption of beef from the specialised system. PGT results highlighted the environmental benefits that can be delivered by ‘diverse’ agricultural systems and added detail to LCA results; for example the high labour input at the CSF helped generate social capital whilst partially explaining the reduced emissions from tractor operations modelled in the carrot LCA. SIGNIFICANCEWe conclude that LCA may not be the most suitable tool to consider these wider aspects of sustainability and can only provide an estimate of environmental impacts. LCA helps understand which parts of the food system have the greatest impacts, and how they could become more sustainable, but it cannot determine sustainable agriculture alone. The addition of rapid farm-level multi-criteria sustainability assessment tools can complement the LCA results, help reveal ‘blind spots’, and encourage adoption by farmers.

Multicriteria Sustainability Assessment of Transport Modes: A European Union Case Study for 2020

Multicriteria Sustainability Assessment of Transport Modes: A European Union Case Study for 2020

Field-driven multi-criteria sustainability assessment of last-mile rural electrification in Brazil

Over the past two decades, one-sixth of the world’s rural population has gained access to energy. However, intensified efforts are needed to meet the goal of universal coverage. Photovoltaic solar systems (PVS) have emerged as significant solutions for addressing last-mile electrification challenges. Nevertheless, the sustainability of PVS-based initiatives has raised concerns, and existing research lacks a long-term, practical and comprehensive program-scale assessment, along with experience-driven approaches to overcome them. This study aims to identify key design strategies to ensure the sustainable operation and impact of off-grid solar electrification programs. This work evaluates the sustainability of the world-wide referral “Luz para Todos” program in Brazil, conducting field assessments in thirty-five rural communities, electrified between 2005 and 2020 in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Bahia. Interviews were held with beneficiaries, community leaders, rural electrification agents and key public sector actors. The quality of electricity access and the level of population’s empowerment through electrification are assessed using three operation and impact criteria and two sets of ad-hoc indicators. Results highlight the importance of considering the dynamic character of energy demand and addressing additional remoteness difficulties (such as displacements and communication) to guarantee long-lasting quality PVS. Furthermore, emphasis is placed on the disruptive potential of mobile internet and the productive impact of access to water and food refrigeration in strengthening rural empowerment. This analysis serves as a guide for PVS initiative promoters to synergistically address both operational durability and long-term local development challenges.

Decarbonization of maritime transport: Sustainability assessment of alternative power systems

The growing concern for the emission of greenhouse gases and several recent international regulations promote the introduction of innovative solutions aiming at the reduction of pollutant production in all human activities, including maritime transportation. Phasing out conventional marine gas oil engines is a key strategy to limit the pressure on the environment exerted by maritime transport. Considering the strategic relevance of this sector, the sustainability of innovative clean technologies proposed for ship power systems is crucial. In the present study, a multi-criteria sustainability assessment methodology, based on specific indicators addressing the technological, economic, environmental, and safety performance of ship power systems is developed. Normalization and aggregation perspectives are proposed to provide key performance indicators describing and ranking the overall sustainability performance of the alternative power systems considered. A sensitivity analysis is performed to identify the most impacting parameters in each domain. The methodology is tested considering a case study representative of large-scale maritime transportation. The robustness of the sustainability performance-based ranking is assessed by a Monte Carlo analysis. The results suggest that the ranking of alternative power systems obtained considering only techno-economic factors may be strongly affected by highly fluctuating parameters, such as fuel cost. Conversely, the inclusion of environmental and safety aspects increases the robustness of the results. A trade-off between the environmental and societal domains is also observed, indicating that the performance of cleaner solutions may be strongly improved if safety issues are properly addressed.

A multi-criteria sustainability assessment and decision-making framework for DME synthesis via CO2 hydrogenation

A multi-criteria sustainability assessment and decision-making framework for DME synthesis via CO2 hydrogenation

Robust Multicriteria Sustainability Assessment in Urban Transportation

Developing methodologies to facilitate the planning of sustainable transport systems for decision makers (DMs) is becoming more critical. This study proposed a methodological framework for sustainable urban transportation to make decisions during urban transportation’s design and planning stages. Urban transportation alternatives were evaluated by sustainability indicators that considered a triple bottom line approach’s environmental, economic, and social aspects. To choose the best alternative sustainable transportation scenarios, two multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, for example, a hesitant fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (HF–AHP) and multiple attribute utility model (MAUT), were integrated. First, eight sustainable transportation indicators that considered data availability from the transport sector were selected. The weights of the selected indicators were calculated using an HF–AHP. These indicators included carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, energy consumption, depletion of nonrenewable resources, operational and maintenance costs, fuel and taxes, the number of fatalities or injuries, and motor vehicles for public transport per 10,000 population. Finally, sensitivity analysis was applied to validate the robustness. Based on HF–AHP results, the number of fatalities or injuries was the most significant among the eight indicators, with a 0.158 normalized weight (Ni). The results of this integrated methodology highlighted that Alternative 11, which was dominated by low-motorized vehicles (low-MVs), was the best sustainable alternative and Alternative 1 was the worst sustainable alternative, which was dominated by high-MVs with 0.69 and 0.27 total utility values, respectively. Low-motorized urban transportation alternatives showed higher sustainable performances than the motorized and high-motorized alternatives. This study proposed a novel and robust methodology for decisions on sustainable urban transportation projects and renovating current urban transportation systems.

Multicriteria Sustainability Assessment of Family Farms. A Case with Maize in South East Asia

Multicriteria Sustainability Assessment of Family Farms. A Case with Maize in South East Asia

Towards just transition of coal regions - Cultivation of short rotation copies and dedicated energy crops for biomass co-firing vs photo voltaic power plants

• Abandoned coal mine areas to continue sustainable use now in the green energy business. • Options proposed include forming biomass plantations vs construction of solar power plants. • Sustainability criteria such as economic, environmental and social aspect need to be considered. • Decision can be made using both aggregated economic analysis and multi criteria sustainability assessment. In developing countries, which dominantly produce electricity by burning coal, energy transition represents a significant challenge. Short rotation coppice and dedicated energy crops could be a promising raw material for production of biofuel and its further usage for electricity and heat generation. This work assesses possibilities and elaborates on the sustainability of cultivation of short rotation coppice type willow and dedicated energy crop Miscanthus on former areas of coalmines belonging to the largest power utility in Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely JP Elektroprivreda BiH d.d. – Sarajevo. Abandoned coal mine areas were mapped and, by settled criteria, dedicated either to future photovoltaic power plants integration or the cultivation of energy crops and their further use in the considered generation portfolio mix. In order to assess the contribution of both photovoltaic power plants and biomass in the upcoming energy transition process, an adequate method has been developed in this article and specific sustainability indicator groups determined to further calculate the sustainability ratio. The paper focuses on economic, environmental and social indicator groups, which were used to perform the aggregated economic analysis and the multi criteria analysis. Performed aggregated economic analysis lightly favours the construction of photovoltaic power plants over the use of willow as fuel. In this analysis, Mischantus is lagging far behind due to its lower yield compared to willow. The multi criteria analysis on the other hand, valorises the social indicator adequately and the sustainability ratio results are much closer for both considered renewable sources types. This shows the importance of a comprehensive approach and definition of appropriate methods to enable decision-makers to draw appropriate conclusions.

Experimental characterization of comfort performance parameters and multi-criteria sustainability assessment of recycled textile-reinforced cement facade cladding

Within the building construction sector, fiber cement boards have attracted interest as facade cladding materials in the last ten years, especially those that incorporate –for reinforcing purposes– natural and/or recycled synthetic fibers (i.e, from the textile industry). So far, the design-governing parameters of facade cladding panels have been mechanical strength, durability, constructability, aesthetics, insulation capacity, and fire resistance. From the sustainability perspective, the impact of the facade on the economic and energy efficiency performance is most often the parameter that leads the decision-making process. Within this context, the quantification of the sustainability performance of the facade –accounting for economic, environmental, and social indicators– is unfrequently carried out in design and project phases, this being attributed to the lack of methodologies that allow considering and quantifying some relevant indicators representative of the facade sustainability performance. As consequence, decisions made based on solely economic and on some of the environmental indicators might lead to solutions with lower sustainability performance than that required (or expected). Recycled textile waste fabric-reinforced cement board as a facade-cladding material for building envelopes is the focus of this research. In order to characterize the fire resistance, and thermal and acoustic insulation –as relevant serviceability parameters– of this material, an experimental program was carried out. Likewise, the sustainability performance of this facade-cladding is assessed through a method based on the Integrated Value Model for Sustainability Assessment (MIVES). This multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model relies on the value function concept and the multi-disciplinary participation of experts to identify and quantify the relevant indicators of the facade sustainability performance and the relative importance of indicators and requirements. The MIVES-based model generated for this research can be straightforwardly used for assessing the sustainability performance of facade-cladding techniques made of any material and for any type of building (and location). The application of the MIVES model led to the sustainability index of this new material for facade-cladding ranging from 0.68 to 0.71 (/1.00) for different weighting scenarios.

Sustainable offshore natural gas processing with thermodynamic gas-hydrate inhibitor reclamation: Supersonic separation affords carbon capture

Dew-point adjustments and reclamation of thermodynamic gas-hydrate inhibitors injected in subsea flowlines are common operations in offshore natural gas rigs characterized by high costs, power consumption and carbon emissions. Typically, offshore plants employ triethylene-glycol absorption for water dew-point adjustment and Joule–Thomson expansion for hydrocarbon dew-point adjustment, while hydrate inhibitor reclamation is applied only on aqueous-inhibitor streams for re-concentration. To implement economically sustained post-combustion carbon capture on offshore rigs, a more efficient gas processing is necessary. This work contemplates a new process – supersonic separator inhibitor-reclamation – which recovers inhibitors from saturated raw-gas via supersonic separation with liquid-water injection additionally yielding exportable liquefied-petroleum-gas and natural gas with adjusted dew-points. This process dramatically improves profitability for thermodynamic inhibitors methanol, ethanol and monoethylene-glycol, creating an economic leverage that affords a post-combustion capture plant avoiding about 43% of carbon emissions. Even including post-combustion capture penalties, the supersonic separator inhibitor-reclamation process achieves a higher net value than the conventional gas processing without carbon capture. A multi-criteria sustainability assessment, based on quantitative metrics and qualitative aspects over all sustainability dimensions, evinces the supersonic separator inhibitor-reclamation process with carbon capture as more sustainable than the conventional counterpart for all inhibitors, whereas among the three inhibitors, the gas processing with monoethylene-glycol was ranked as the more sustainable for offshore rigs.

An Adaptive Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Model for Sustainability Assessment of Sugarcane Agroindustry Supply Chain

Supply chain sustainability assessment is key to maintaining and improving the performance of agroindustry supply chains, particularly in sustainable agroindustry development. The assessment of agro-industrial supply chain performance is a complex and dynamic process. Hence, there is a need for an adaptive fuzzy multi-criteria sustainability assessment model as an alternative method of analysis and improvement. This study aimed to design an adaptive fuzzy multi-criteria sustainability assessment and improvement model for the sugarcane agroindustry supply chain. In this study: (1) a fuzzy inference system (FIS) was developed to assess the performance of the sustainability dimensions. This study proposed 24 indicators for four dimensions: economic, social, environmental, and resource. (2) An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is designed to aggregate the overall supply chain sustainability performance. (3) The proposed fuzzy multi-criteria assessment model was compared with the common multidimensional scaling (MDS) and linear models. This study proved that the proposed synthesis of the FIS and ANFIS models is powerful and adaptive for evaluating supply chain sustainability and providing accurate results. (4) The strategies to improve sustainability performance were developed using the cosine amplitude method (CAM). The proposed model determined that the overall supply chain sustainability value was 68.58%, which was almost sustainable. Several strategies have been suggested to improve sustainability performance, including maintaining the sugarcane supply by strengthening the partnership program and improving the mill’s overall recovery, followed by factory revitalization or new factory investment.

Beyond carbon in socioenvironmental assessment: Life cycle assessment as a decision support tool for net-zero energy systems

Decarbonizing the energy system is a crucial task for mitigating climate change. Although sustainability assessment methods like life cycle assessment (LCA) are designed for multicriteria sustainability evaluation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions tend to dominate recommendations and analyses because of the clear relationship between a simple indicator and the many serious impacts of climate change. When faced with a choice among multiple net-zero GHG infrastructure options, however, GHG emissions are no longer available as an overall proxy for sustainability. The socioenvironmental assessment community thus faces a challenge in robustly evaluating relative sustainability for net-zero GHG energy systems and the systems that use them. Methodological issues like data collection and management, context-specific impact assessment, normalization, and multicriteria prioritization remain underdeveloped in part because they are less important in contexts where GHG emissions are assumed to dominate decisions. Broadly, the ability to robustly and rigorously manage and communicate epistemic uncertainty in true multicriteria sustainability assessment contexts remains underdeveloped in LCA because GHGs have been such a reliably dominant indicator. This piece argues that to survive as a relevant, useful tool in a zero-GHG future, LCA ought to mature as a decision support tool rather than as a pure assessment tool. Methodological attention focused on decision support, including robust approaches to sensitivity and scenario analysis, is particularly needed. Issue areas for LCA “beyond carbon” are categorized by LCA phase, illustrated with examples from carbon capture and storage (CCS) evaluations. Leveraging existing strengths of multicriteria sustainability assessment methodologies like LCA, and investing effort in strengthening their value for decision support, could improve long-term sustainability outcomes.

Multi-criteria sustainability assessment and decision-making framework for hydrogen pathways prioritization: An extended ELECTRE method under hybrid information

Hydrogen has been received more and more attentions because of its advantage in terms of low environmental impact and high energy density. However, the sustainability priorities of different hydrogen production pathways have not been determined. To assist the sustainability-oriented selection of hydrogen production pathways, a prioritization framework needs to be built. However, the data collected from different sources consisting of hybrid information, such as crisp numbers, interval numbers, and fuzzy numbers, increases the difficulty of sustainability-oriented decision-making. Therefore, this study aims to develop a sustainability prioritization framework for hydrogen production pathways under hybrid information. The Z-number Best Worst Method (ZBWM) is applied to quantify the weight of each criterion from the views of decision-makers in the forms of Z-number. The ELECTRE method has been extended to prioritize the alternatives under the context of hybrid information. An illustrative case including five hydrogen production processes is used to illustrate the proposed prioritization framework from environmental, social, economic, and technical aspects, and the results show that biomass hydrogen technology is the most sustainable choice. In order to validate the feasibility of the proposed model, other three multi-criteria decision making methods were also used to determine the sustainability rankings of these five hydrogen production pathways, and the comparisons reveal that this method is feasible.

Multi-criteria sustainability assessment of potential methanol production processes

Due to rapidly increasing world population and growing energy demands, the development of cleaner technologies to exploit renewable energy systems has become of primary importance in the collective efforts to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. The chemical conversion of renewable power into synthetic liquid fuels, such as methanol, allows an easier storage and transportation and avoids any fluctuating issues. Alternative process routes for methanol production other than from raw materials derived from fossil fuels have, during the past decade, grown in interest, where valorising the carbon capture and utilization concept and promoting synergies with the oil & gas industry are potentially achieved. The aim of this study is, in this regard, to investigate the sustainability aspects of alternative processes for synthetic methanol synthesis by applying a systematic methodology based on multi-criteria performance indicators (such as technological, economic, environmental and inherent safety). A total of eleven alternative methanol production schemes, based on synthetic methane or carbon dioxide transformation, are considered, analyzed and comparatively evaluated. The present results demonstrate that the process schemes using catalytic hydrogenation of carbon dioxide offers the best performance when considering a methanol capacity of 500 kg/h. A sensitivity analysis based on the Monte Carlo approach is also performed to verify the robustness of the results.

Typology and sustainability assessment of rabbit farms in the urban and peri-urban areas of Southern Benin (West Africa)

<p>Analysis of production systems allows scientists to identify their weaknesses, particularly concerning production practices which require improvements at economic, social, and environmental levels. The present study aimed to characterise rabbit farms in the urban and peri-urban areas of South Benin and assess their sustainability using the DIAMOND method, a multicriteria sustainability assessment tool. Ninety-eight farmers were surveyed and individually interviewed. Categorical principal component and twostep cluster analyses were performed on information collected for a typology of farms. Sustainability scores were generated using the scoring scale of the DIAMOND tool. Five types of rabbit farms were identified as follows: modern extensive polyculture, traditional extensive monoculture, modern extensive monoculture, semi-intensive polyculture, and traditional extensive polyculture. Overall, all the rabbit farms had good scores for the economic sustainability pillar but were socially limited. They were all similar in their economic and environmental performances. In particular, semi-intensive farms were the most socially sustainable, whereas traditional farms (either in polyculture or monoculture) showed the lowest social performances. Furthermore, there were significant differences between farms for criteria relating to consumers’ demands and resource use. Semi-intensive farms responded best to consumers’ demands, whereas the traditional polyculture farm type was the most resource use efficient. Overall, in the urban and peri-urban areas of South Benin, the most sustainable rabbit farms were semi-intensive. Irrespective of farm type, positive coefficients of correlations were recorded among the three pillars of sustainability, being significant between the social and economic pillars on one hand, and between the social and environmental pillars on the other hand. These results suggest that efforts to improve farm social performance would also positively affect their economic and environmental performances and improve overall farm sustainability.</p>

A multi-criteria sustainability assessment for biodiesel alternatives in Spain: Life cycle assessment normalization and weighting

The bioenergy sector in the European Union has undergone strong growth in line with the legislative framework, with environmental, economic and social implications at global scale. In Spain, almost 100% of biodiesel is produced from food and feed crops feedstocks. First-generation biodiesel will go on being a key partial rapid solution to replace fossil fuel in transport sector. However, impacts differ significantly among the type of agricultural system, the raw materials used and their life cycle. The aim of this study is to identify the best first-generation biodiesel alternative to replace petrodiesel in transport sector in the short term in Spain. Life Cycle Assessment normalization and weighting can facilitate decision making in situations where trade-offs among impact category results do not allow choosing one preferable solution among the alternatives. A panel weighting impact approach based on expert opinions was used to assess the sustainability of three biodiesel production systems. The results indicate that, according to expert’s opinion, the rapeseed-based biodiesel produced entirely in Spain is the most sustainable alternative of biodiesel, with higher normalized weight (0.398), over soybean-based biodiesel produced in Argentina (0.291) or in Spain (0.312) using soybean oil imported from Argentina, because it could significatively increase job creation and gross value added.

Uncertain multi-criteria sustainability assessment of green building insulation materials

Sustainability assessment is the key procedure applied for selecting building insulation materials in order to ensure satisfactory performance and long-term impacts on society and environment. Insulation of buildings is considered as a very efficient energy saving technique leading to significant reduction in GHG emission. There are many building insulation materials and technologies ranging from traditional inorganic synthetic to organic natural ones which are based on recyclable and renewable biological resources. The paper aims to propose a framework for sustainability assessment of insulation materials for buildings. The interval TOPSIS method is applied for multi-criteria assessment. The results of multi-criteria sustainability assessment of organic and inorganic building insulation materials revealed that recycled glass and sheep wool appear as the most desirable options when different scenarios are assumed.

A multi-criteria sustainability assessment approach for energy systems using sustainability triple bottom line attributes and linguistic preferences

Regarding the high level of pollution in energy industries, evaluating the current sustainability level in energy systems in developed/developing countries remains a challenge. A sustainable energy system has to proceed simultaneously social, economic and environmental practices with the goal of enhancing the sustainability level in associated systems. The evaluation of sustainability plays an active role in implementation of short- and long-term sustainability practices. This study proposes a novel framework as a benchmark for evaluations of sustainability in energy systems by introducing sixty-five key attributes and thirteen criteria for three pillars of sustainability. Due to the existence of incomplete information and uncertainty in evaluations of sustainability, the linguistic terms are used for expressing the condition of weight and performance rate for every single attribute based on expert judgment in accordance with fuzzy logic. Triangular fuzzy membership functions are also deployed to assign those linguistic judgments with appropriate fuzzy sets. The outputs of the proposed methodology involve a three-level fuzzy computational approach for obtaining the overall energy system’s sustainability index, using Euclidean distance approach for determination of sustainability level, a sieve algorithm for identifying the obstacles of sustainability using fuzzy performance importance index and finally enhancing the overall sustainability level with optimizing the identified weak points. An illustrative case is also resolved using proposed approach to elucidate the wide application of proposed framework in diverse energy systems/companies. The validation of approach is clarified by crisp calculations. The findings of this study will contribute policymakers and practitioners to take appropriate steps toward improvement of energy corporations.

A multi-criteria sustainability assessment of water reuse applications: a case study in Lakeland, Florida

Alternative water reuse applications were evaluated while considering a holistic sustainability perspective that accounted for environmental, economic, and social dimensions.