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It is well established that the existing building environmental assessment methods and sustainability assessment methods are intended to foster detailed design stage while there is a need to support early design stages. This research intends to develop a framework that actively supports design development at the formative design stages. The paper reviews the well-established building environmental assessment methods: CASBEE, LEED, BREEAM and GRIHA, and the existing sustainability assessment methods: iiSBE's Sustainable Building Tool (SB Tool), German Sustainable Building Council's Certificate Program (DGNB), Living Building Challenge (LBC) and ARUP's Sustainable Project Assessment Routine SPeAR®. Further, well-known theories of ecological Sustainability are reviewed. The critical points of convergence and divergence of anthropocentric and biocentric approaches are identified to articulate the parameters of sustainability assessment. Specialists in the sustainable built environment assigned weights for assessment parameters (criteria) by applying the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Their specialist opinions manifest the particular features of the Indian context. The paper delineates the Biocenosis, a novel framework for sustainability assessment of the built environment rooted in the concept of the synergy of nature with social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits for the context of India. It is intended to aid building professionals in the formative design phases as it enables an integrated and comprehensive assessment of the level to which the requirement of a sustainable built environment is satisfied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hillside planning, design, and development require an intensive understanding of human habitats, man–environment interaction, hill environment sensitivities, spatial planning, and design issues to ensure contextually appropriate development. Although numerous tools, techniques, and frameworks have been developed and implemented to assess urban sustainability, these have not been applied to environmentally sensitive hilly areas, nor have their appropriateness been determined. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a new urban sustainability assessment tool (USAT) named the "Sustainable Urban Development of Environmentally Sensitive Hilly Areas Suitability IndeX (SUDESHA-SIX)" to evaluate the sustainability of hillside settlements using an analytical hierarchy process. The methodology combines descriptive and deductive analytical techniques and geographic information systems-based statistical methods. SUDESHA-SIX was first developed some years back and was applied to the New Tehri Township as it received the National Award for Excellence in planning and design in hills in the year 2000 by the then Prime Minister of India. The results showed that out of the six broad factors, "site suitability" was ranked as the most critical factor of environmentally sensitive hilly areas, followed by "built environment," "environment and ecology," "climate and energy," "transportation and connectivity," and "visual resources." When applied to existing projects, the developed tool provided a more objective and detailed information on the urban sustainability of hilly areas, which could help architects, planners, designers, and decision-makers develop strategies to improve the overall urban sustainability of hilly regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water conservation simply means using less water, avoiding or minimizing the wastage of water and/or recycling water, so that it can be used again for different purposes. In dry parts of India, conserving water is of prime importance and so, different techniques need to be adopted. In this paper, a model of water conservation strategies and systems in the residential home, using the city of Aurangabad as a basis, has been explored using the multi-criteria decision-making technique. The Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is applied to structure the decision problem into a hierarchy framework and thereby five criteria were used to evaluate the elements. The paper is intended to present an integrated model of the major options in residential water conservation in 4 different degrees using a case study. Applications of all the technologies/systems obtained from FAHP are used to address the entire lifecycle of water, right from its arrival on site to its use and eventual expenditure. The study also compares the financial implications among the different systems, where it is found that the payback period is least for plumbing fixtures and highest for wastewater treatment system. It is also observed from the case study that around 39.13% of water savings is achieved after the up-gradation of the existing plumbing fixtures. It is found that dependence on municipal water supply is reduced by 67.30% after recycling water in various sectors in house. The greywater generated in house is completely being used in water closets and outdoor use. Various internal purposes are satisfied from the harvested rainwater and savings of around 86.75% are achieved. As all of the water requirements are satisfied from the technologies used, less than 40% of wastewater is discharged in the municipal system. So, it is expected that the proposed system will enable occupants to be aware of their water usage and control and reduce water usage levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The objective of the work is to have an insight into the degree of the contemporary concept of greening the organization through human resource management (HRM) and to attempt to bridge the gap toward environmental awareness, as well as to observe the dimensions of green HRM (GHRM) practices and its impression toward environmental sustainability by using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and FAHP. Design/methodology/approach: The research was carried out in two phases; multi-method was employed. The first phase mainly includes a systematic review to convene comprehensive knowledge of widespread GHRM practices to leverage environmental sustainability. In the second phase, the AHP and fuzzy AHP (FAHP) were employed to examine the influence of the respective dimension of GHRM practices toward environmental sustainability. Findings: This study emphasizes the status of GHRM practices such as green recruitment and green selection, green performance management, green training and development, green compensation and rewards, green welfare aspects as a way to aid environmental issues. The findings suggest that these initiatives help to leverage environmental sustainability. Further, this paper reveals that green compensation and rewards have the highest impact on leveraging environmental sustainability. However, this study also emphasizes the comparative study of GHRM dimensions through AHP and FAHP. Originality/value: As existing studies reveal, there is least research carried on this field of study and no study was conducted using AHP and FAHP in this field. Thus, this study reveals the necessity to discover the degree of concern toward GHRM practices in context to India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing economic crisis and strict government policies and regulations regarding the environment have forced the battery industries to practice the recycling process for both economic and environmental benefits. Moreover the consideration of sustainability issues makes the recycling process more significant, successful implementation of recycling activity in the battery industry requires several strategic decisions. Among these decisions, a complex decision faced by the management is to identify the suitable location for the establishment of a formal Battery Recycling Plant (BRP). In this research work, a three-stage hybrid methodology with the combination of ISM (Interpretive Structural Modeling), fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), and fuzzy COPRAS (Complex Proportional Assessment of Alternatives) methods was proposed to select the best sustainable location from the available options for BRP in India. In this study, a total of eight experts were selected from both academia and industry. Initially in this paper, 4 main sustainable criteria and 20 sustainable sub-criteria were considered from the literature review and field visits along with experts' opinions for evaluation of alternatives. This work contains three stages. In the first stage, the ISM method was used to filter 18 important sustainable sub-criteria from the primary list of 20 sub-criteria, based on its higher driving power. Then, fuzzy AHP was applied in the second stage to compute the criteria weights. In the last stage, the fuzzy COPRAS was used to rank and choose the best sustainable location for BRP. The findings emphasize that the Environmental protection level, Distance from residential areas, Distance from water source, Capital investment, Government policies, Social acceptance, Availability of scrap batteries, and Availability of utilities were the most significant criteria in the sustainability dimension. Thus, the present work helps the management in the selection of an appropriate sustainable location for BRP. [Display omitted] • A hybrid methodology was proposed for selecting battery recycling plant location. • Sustainable criteria are considered for decision making. • Interpretive Structural Modeling was used to identify the noteworthy criteria. • Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process was applied to obtain the criteria weights. • Fuzzy Complex Proportional Assessment of Alternatives was used to select location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The coal power plants will continue to be the backbone of the Indian power sector for next few decades in India. • The Advanced Coal Technologies (ACT) have higher Sustainability Index. • The ACTs coupled with Carbon Capture Systems help to meet the future electricity demand as well as combat climate change. • Optimal mix of all energy source and technologies will create a sustainable society. In India, more than two-thirds of the total electricity is generated from coal-based power plants. The country will be heavily dependent on coal for electricity generation at least for a few more decades. A low carbon scenario for 2030 is projected and the results show that coal-based power plant will contribute to 58 % of electricity generated. This paper reports the sustainability assessment of several Advanced Coal Technologies (ACT), with and without a CO 2 capture system, for application in Indian coal-based power plants. In order to assess sustainability quantitatively, an index called Sustainability Index is estimated using a sequential combination of the Analytic Hierarchy Process and a multi-criteria decision-making method. The results show that ACTs like supercritical and ultra supercritical power plants with a carbon capture system have higher sustainability indices. These ACTs will help in reducing the CO 2 emissions and combat climate change. This study helps academicians, industrialists, policymakers, and other stakeholders to develop a technology roadmap for sustainable development in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]