Responsible consumption and production (RCP) in corporate decision-making models using soft computation

Abstract

Responsible consumption and production (RCP) in corporate decision-making models using soft computation Introduction RCP is critical to a sustainable world. Human and environmental systems interact through the economic system in various ways that have caused many unsustainable issues to arise. Solving these problems is a non-trivial exercise and could be considered one of the world's "wicked" problems (Churchman, 1967). Wicked problems are complex, intractable, conflicting, and multidimensional problems many times with unforeseen and unintended consequences. It is within this context that the use of soft computation may be a valuable set of tools to handle wicked problems from an RCP perspective.The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been developed to set an agenda to transform nations, businesses, and society to become more sustainable by 2030 (Griggs et al., 2013). In total, 17 goals were set in various social, economic, and environmental issues. SDG 12 titled, "Responsible consumption and production," has a long history in various international conferences and actions. RCP is meant to ensure sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns. This SDG sets the stage by stating that a strong national framework for Achieving Goal 12 requires a strong national framework for SCP be integrated into regulatory plans and policies, business practices and consumer behavior, together while adhering to international norms on hazardous chemicals and waste management (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2016). Essentially, the goal here is focusing on various elements of the supply chain ranging from deep in the supply chain and extractive industries, to individual consumer needs. Green supply chains and green consumerism are evident in many of the considerations and research streams necessary to more fully understand how progress can be made on SDG 12.RCP in business usually contains the qualitative and quantitative information as well as complex phenomena for decision-making processes (Roy and Singh, 2017). In this context, soft computing attempts to study, model, and analyze complex situations for which conventional methods, such as single criteria financial measures such as return on investment or payback, have not yielded complete solutions to these complex and strategic problems (Presley et al., 2016). This special issue (SI) exploits SCP in corporate decision-making models' tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty, and partial truth to achieve tractability, robustness, and better rapport with reality. Applying soft computing can potentially eliminate noise to ensure SCP development. Soft computing can have a variety of definitions, but a common theme is to taking into consideration the human mind, imprecision, and differing behavioral issues that are not considered in "hard computing" optimization approaches (Zadeh, 1997;Magdalena, 2010). Hence, there is a need to further explore how soft computing is positioned, conceptualized, and applied in current RCP developments.Viewpoints and ...

Addressing the Role of Sustainable Public Procurement as a Panacea for Sustainable Development in the Local Government Areas: The Episode of Nigeria

“…-According to the United Nations, RCP refers to "the use of services and related products, which respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life while minimizing the use of natural resources and toxic materials as well as the emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle of the service or product so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations" (UN, 2020c). RCP is critical to a sustainable world and remains the cardinal point to any growing economy, substantially contributes to low-carbon emission, promotes green economies, and conserves natural resources (Tseng, Zhu, Sarkis, & Chiu, 2018;UN, 2020a). Although consumption and production significantly drive the global economy (Tseng et al, 2018), there is also planetary devastation through unsustainable utilisation of the natural resources, as the worldwide footprint is on the increase and projected faster than the trajectory of economic productivity, population growth, a high percentage of unacceptable food forfeiture along the supply chain, and unnecessary medical waste caused in the era of the pandemic (SDG, 2020).…”

“…From the local perspective, it is pertinent to acknowledge a multilateral social dialogue between the employees, employers, and the government to implement a strategic policy for sustainability. Addressing these challenges of the pandemic, countries now could change their consumption and production pattern to a more sustainable reality by commencing a national framework that requires a robust regulatory plan and policies of the UN Goal 12, Target 7, that seeks to promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, by national policies and priorities (Tseng et al, 2018;UN, 2020c)…”

“…For effectiveness, sustainable public procurement requires absolute environmental modalities for products and services in ways that promote procurement to the benefit of the larger populace. In Europe, for instance, many countries have developed operational guidance that streamlines the fundamental criteria of the core, verifiable, and comprehensive environmental standards of the SPP (Tseng et al, 2018;UN, 2020b). While this guidance remains the pinnacle for sustainable procurement, it applies to a vast majority of products and services for the sustenance of the environment and is found in textiles products, server room, and cloud services, imaging equipment, consumables, operating and maintaining facilities, organic constituents of growing media, gardening practices to enhance biodiversity, utilisation of low emission vehicle, manufacturing and end-of-life of cleaning products and other cleaning accessories (UN, 2020b)…”

Projects in Industry 4.0 framework and its effects on occupational safety

“…On the other hand, Industry 4.0 provides huge growth in industrialization and therefore, can disrupt the sustainability of current industrial systems. In addition, it can cause an environmental disbalance in the meaning of higher resource consumption, global warming, climate change and higher energy needs [5,16,17]. Industry 4.0 is trying to solve all these challenges in modern industrialization using the concept of sustainability.…”

A General Outline of a Sustainable Supply Chain 4.0

“…The fourth industrial revolution is expected to cause a tremendous industrialization growth and may disturb the sustainability of current industrial systems [1,2]. In addition, further impacts in terms of higher resources consumption, global warming, and climate change issues [3] are expected. In this sense, adopting management practices for production and supply chain systems that considers all the sustainability-economic, social, and environmental-aspects and exploits the digital transformation characteristics that industry 4.0 (I4.0) represents is a relevant theme that requires research and needs to be applied in manufacturing supply chains.…”