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More and more eco-industrial thermal power plants are established in China to promote the clean and sustainable production of coal resources. This paper presents an effective approach for evaluating performance of emerging eco-industrial plants in China. In general, performance evaluation is a complex multi-criteria decision-making problem, in which multiple requirements and fuzzy conditions have to be taken into consideration simultaneously. By combining concepts of the Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacijia I Kompromisno Resenje and grey relational analysis, a new fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model is proposed to deal with the performance evaluation of eco-industrial thermal power plants. This model is solved by an effective algorithm, which incorporates the decision-maker's attitude on performance ratings of each criterion, and integrates the objective information as well as subjective opinions in criteria weights determination based on fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and Shannon entropy. Finally, the applicability of proposed framework is demonstrated by an empirical study of eco-industrial thermal power plants in Shanxi province. The results show that A3 achieves the best performance, criteria affiliated with waste recycle and pollutant emission obtain much more attentions than that of other criteria. Moreover, the sensitivity analysis indicates the robustness and effectiveness of proposed model and evaluation results. The study innovates the weights determination and aggregating function for conventional fuzzy Vlsekriterijumska Optimizacijia I Kompromisno Resenje, which provides an effective means for performance evaluation of eco-industrial thermal power plants involving subjective assessments of qualitative attributes in a fuzzy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, municipal authorities especially in the developing nations are battling to select the best health care waste (HCW) disposal technique for the effective treatment of the medical wastes during and post COVID-19 era. As evaluation of various disposal alternatives of HCW and selection of the best technique requires considering various tangible and intangible criteria, this can be framed as multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this paper, we propose an assessment framework for the selection of the best HCW disposal technique based on socio-technical and triple bottom line perspectives. We have identified 10 criteria on which the best HCW disposal techniques to be selected based on extant literature review. Next, we use Fuzzy VIKOR method to evaluate 9 HCW disposal alternatives. The effectiveness of the proposed framework has been demonstrated with a real-life case study in Indian context. To check the robustness of the proposed methodology, we have compared the results obtained with Fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique of Order Preference Similarity to the Ideal Solution). The results help the municipal authorities to establish a methodical approach to choose the best HCW disposal techniques. Our findings indicate that incineration is the best waste disposal technique among the available alternatives. Even if the dataset indicates 'incineration' is the best method, we must not forget about the environmental concerns arising from this method. In COVID time, incineration may be the best method as indicated by the data analysis, but "COVID" should not be an excuse for causing "Environmental Pollution". • Health care waste disposal technique selection is a serious concern during COVID-19. • We propose Fuzzy VIKOR based method for selecting the best disposal technique. • This work has been grounded on Triple Bottom Line and Socio-Technical perspectives. • The proposed framework has been validated with a real-life case study. • The effectiveness of the proposed method has been compared with Fuzzy TOPSIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the current growth purchase trends of new energy vehicles (NEVs), selecting appropriate supplier(s) based on sustainable criteria has become a significant choice in this fiercely competitive market. In this paper, a fuzzy three-stage integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is proposed to select the most qualified supplier. First, triple bottom line (TBL) is applied to establish the sustainable supplier criteria with respect to economic, environmental, and social aspects. Second, the performance of sustainable suppliers is evaluated using the proposed approach, which consists of three operational stages. The first stage aggregates decision makers' opinions. The second stage transforms the ratings from the customer's perspective to the designer's perspective. In this stage, the quality function deployment (QFD) integrated with interval-valued intuitionistic trapezoidal fuzzy numbers (IVITFNs) is used to address the ambiguity in human thought, and transform the customer needs (CNs) into engineering characteristics (ECs). The third stage prioritizes the alternatives according to ECs. The VITse Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method integrated with IVITFNs is utilized to rank and select supplier(s). Finally, a case study of NEV battery suppliers' selection demonstrates the applicability and robustness of this proposed approach. • Customer need-based MCDM approach combining IVITFN, QFD and VIKOR is proposed. • It conducts sufficient sustainability consideration of supplier selection. • It will handle the uncertainties and correlations among criteria by combination of QFD with IVITFN. • It will select the optimal supplier reasonably by organic integration of VIKOR. • Superiority of the approach is verified by a case study of NEV battery supplier selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]