Challenges in using environmental indicators for measuring sustainability practices

Tam, Edwin K. L.

doi:10.1139/s02-032

Cited by 15 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Indicators can be associated to quantitative or qualitative performance data (Waheed, Khan, & Veitch, 2009). In automotive industry, exemplary, the challenges for selecting suitable indicators to measure environmental performance are firstly to develop and evaluate appropriate normalized and functionally related indicators, and secondly to integrate indicators into the design and decision process using multi-objective approaches (Tam, 2002). Some techniques that can be found in this approach are linkage-based frameworks, such as Driving Force-Pressure-State-Exposure-Effect-Action (Waheed, Khan, & Veitch, 2009), Pressure-State-Response, Driving-Force-State response, and Driving-Force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (Awasthi, Omrani, & Gerber, 2018).…”

Section: Indicator-based Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Holistic Sustainability Evaluation for Transport Alternatives

Nguyen

Brünner

Hirz

2020

EJSD

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The transport sector is responsible for a broad range of ecologic impacts, e.g., energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission or air pollution. It is therefore highly important to assess transport solutions in terms of their sustainability. Widely used approaches for sustainability analysis in the transport sector include life cycle assessment (LCA), economic approach, multi-criteria decision analysis (MDCA), and assessments based on indicators. In practice, these approaches consist of several methods, i.e., product-based LCA, fleet-based LCA, cost benefit analysis (CBA), cost effectiveness analysis (CEA), value measurement MDCA, ideal-solution based MDCA, outranking MDCA, and indicator-based assessment. Even though there is a larger number of assessment methods, a holistic framework for sustainability evaluation of different transport solutions is still missing. Selection of suitable assessment methods depends on a vast array of factors. This paper proposes to utilise “application levels” for the selection process. Firstly, the paper provides an analysis of the application levels of the common assessment methods and evaluation criteria within the transport sector based on a literature review. The application levels are illustrated by identifying two dimensions, namely system level and decision-making level, ranging from Low to High. Afterwards, a six-step framework for a holistic evaluation of transport alternatives is proposed. Keywords: sustainability assessment, economic approach, indicator-based assessment, life cycle assessment, multi-criteria decision analysis, sustainable transport

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Section: Indicator-based Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Holistic Sustainability Evaluation for Transport Alternatives

Nguyen

Brünner

Hirz

2020

EJSD

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“…For example, energy consumption (an environmental aspect) contributes to the depletion of natural resources (an environmental impact). In addition, Tam 45 has distinguished environmental indicators according to their industrial usefulness. The first category concerns the indicators used in environmental reports, such as GWP, total primary energy, and eutrophication.…”

Section: Cad/cam/cnc Systems Including Environmental Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable machining approach for CAD/CAM/CNC systems based on a dynamic environmental assessment

Andriankaja

Duigou

Danjou

et al. 2016

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B:

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Sustainability assessment is becoming an unquestionable issue for manufacturing companies that are urged by governments and customers to provide environment-friendly products. Machining, as one of the major manufacturing operations, has high potential factors regarding the environmental impacts of production system. Nevertheless, environmental assessments are mainly done post-product design and post-machining processes design. Integrating environmental assessment in the machining processes design could lead to significant improvements in sustainable manufacturing field. Major difficulties to perform such an assessment are the availability of the machining data and the lack of calculation rules to express them in terms of environmental impacts. This article presents a new approach based on the STandard for the Exchange of Product model data—compliant Numerical Control to integrate the machining environmental assessment in the earlier design phases. It proposes to establish cognitive links between the machining data included in STandard for the Exchange of Product model data—compliant Numerical Control and environmental indicators. The approach is implemented on a demonstrator and validated by a use case.

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“…Furthermore, the interest of various stakeholders in the sustainability development process is not adequately considered. Tam (2002) proposes a multi-objective programming approach for evaluating the sustainability development of individual organizations in selecting the best environment design in automotive and manufacturing industries. Such an approach recognizes the multi-dimensional nature of the problem in measuring the sustainability development with a focus on the environment impact of various sustainability development practices in an organization.…”

Section: Multicriteria Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Multicriteria analysis for benchmarking sustainability development

Deng

2015

Benchmarking: An International Journal

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to formulate the process of measuring and benchmarking the performance of sustainability development of organizations as a multi-criteria analysis problem and presents an objective approach for solving the problem in a simple manner. Design/methodology/approach – An objective approach is developed for benchmarking the sustainability development performance of individual organizations in the context of multi-criteria analysis. The relative importance of the sustainability indicators is determined independent of the subjective preferences of the decision maker using the concept of information entropy. A modified technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solutions is used for effectively incorporating the objective indicator weights into the process of determining the overall performance of sustainability development of each organization. As a result, an unbiased overall ranking of individual organizations on the performance of their sustainability development can be obtained. Findings – The proposed approach is applicable for measuring and benchmarking the performance of organizational sustainability development through the presentation of an example. Originality/value – The originality of the paper is on the development of the objective approach within the context of multi-criteria analysis for measuring and benchmarking the performance of sustainability development of individual organizations.

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Challenges in using environmental indicators for measuring sustainability practices

Cited by 15 publications

References 13 publications

Towards a Holistic Sustainability Evaluation for Transport Alternatives

Towards a Holistic Sustainability Evaluation for Transport Alternatives

Sustainable machining approach for CAD/CAM/CNC systems based on a dynamic environmental assessment

Multicriteria analysis for benchmarking sustainability development

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