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Water conservancy project bidding involves many aspects including nature, society, economy, and environment. In water conservancy project bidding evaluation, both quantitative and qualitative indexes are involved; moreover, different targets are often incommensurable and compete with each other. Scientific decision-making in bidding evaluation is key to linking the stages of project bidding; selecting an appropriate contractor is not only conducive to improving the project quality, but also helpful to achieve the goal of saving on investments. This paper intends to study the problem of multi-target group decision-making in project bidding processes via the use of the mathematical method of fuzzy clustering. Bidder 3 is finally chosen as the most suitable contractor for the construction of this project by determining the score matrix and index weight vector of the four bidders concerned. Results have indicated that the aforementioned method is more reasonable and reliable; thus, the bidding evaluation decision is more scientific. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable procurement is the process of meeting the needs of an organisation with the most beneficial monetary value, while mitigating the diverse effects of its operations on society and environment. There are studies which adopt environmental criteria to procurement decisions, whereas, works integrating the three dimensions and discussing the trade-offs between them are scarce. In this paper, the three dimensions of corporate sustainability; environmental–economical–social, are integrated into supplier selection and demand allocation decisions. With their integrated approach, the proposed mathematical models aim to contribute to the relevant literature by analysing different sustainable procurement strategies. Initially a questionnaire is introduced for measuring the sustainability scores of a company's potential suppliers, and these scores are then used as an input to the models. The developed mixed-integer linear programming models distribute demand to the most sustainable firms in the supplier pool of the company, while ensuring minimum procurement cost for the identified strategy. The questionnaire and models are implemented in three companies to interpret the outcomes of different sustainability strategies on the procurement decisions. Selection of the most appropriate strategy is a managerial decision influenced by the varying dynamics of the company and the market conditions. These models demonstrate an easy and practical approach in assisting sustainable procurement. Results are promising in displaying the trade-offs between the sustainability dimensions of different strategies with alternating procurement costs, and can aid the managers to integrate environmental, economical, and social aspects into their supply chain operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Despite the increasing efforts made by the construction sector to reduce the environmental impact of their processes, construction sites are still a major source of pollution and adverse impacts on the environment. This paper aims to improve the understanding of construction-related environmental impacts by identifying on-site causal factors and associated immediate circumstances during construction processes for residential building projects. Based on the literature and focus group findings, we have developed a construction-related Environmental Impact Causal Model consisting of a process-oriented causal network of thirty-nine environmental impacts, forty-five causal factors and over two hundred causal relationships. It is intended to contribute to a reduction in construction-related environmental impacts on building sites by supporting contractors and other decision-makers in the early identification of factors that are likely to lead to impacts or to exacerbate their consequences, as well as the later environmental performance evaluation and control. The causal model is validated by investigating over a hundred environmental incidents. Finally, possible methods to improve construction-related environmental performance are suggested. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An organization's environmental performance is affected by its suppliers' environmental performance, and selecting green suppliers is a strategic decision in order to be more competitive in today's global market. The supplier selection problem involves several quantitative and qualitative criteria. In the supplier selection process, if suppliers have limited capacity or other constraints, it is necessary to determine the best supplier and order quantity of each supplier. In this paper, we present an integrated approach, of fuzzy multi attribute utility theory and multi-objective programming, for rating and selecting the best green suppliers according to economic and environmental criteria and then allocating the optimum order quantities among them. At first, the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution is applied in order to analyze the importance of multiple criteria by incorporating experts' opinion and to determine the best green suppliers. Next, multi-objective linear programming is used to consider and to formulate various constraints such as quality control, capacity, and other objectives. The objective of the mathematical model is simultaneously to maximize the total value of purchasing and to minimize the total cost of purchasing. To handle the subjectivity of decision makers' preferences, fuzzy logic has been applied. The efficiency and application of the proposed approach has been illustrated with a case study in an automobile manufacturing company. The obtained results help firms establish a systematic approach for tackling green supplier selection and order allocation problems in a realistic situation. Finally managerial implications, conclusions, and directions for additional research are introduced. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sustainable development has occupied a vital position in the field of service design. Since it requires the linkage between economic value and environmental benefits, how to organize service models with social networks becomes a key issue. Related studies generally focus on reducing cost and waste through product-based services; organizational activities and policy-oriented services are relatively ignored. In addition, few methods are adopted to generate service concepts with operational techniques or principles. Hence, “feedback map” and “service flow modeling” are proposed in this paper to help decision makers build appropriate service models. These tools are integrated with existing methods and knowledge, making a systematic framework to handle the information flows in service design. A workshop with the experiment is carried out to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. The results indicate that this framework provides comprehensive information and guidance to fit service activities to sustainable development. It also improves the cooperation across profit and non-profit sectors and different knowledge domains, assisting planners in exploring more possibilities of service types. Moreover, it considers not only product development but also relative strategies or actions for sustainability. It appears that this approach is applicable to deal with complicated situations involving multiple service participants. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The significance of waste management systems in recent years increased due to the growing problems of waste management chains affecting the daily lives of millions of people and the impact on the environment. Several promising approaches have been developed in the past few years. One of them is the waste management system modelling using reliability, availability, maintainability and safety software. This paper analyses and evaluates this approach. The main goal is to provide quantitative forecasts for various performance measures of waste management systems. They include availability, downtimes, number of failures, and cost. Evaluation of these measures is important for optimal decision making. The system design should both maximise the system performance leading to cleaner processing and minimise the overall cost within the allowable constraints. The effectiveness of this methodology is demonstrated through a case study. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]