Search

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]

In this paper, various energy sources for sustainable development of the energy sector in India are evaluated from multiple sustainability factors. A fuzzy integrated analytical hierarchy process (AHP) -- weighted aggregated sum product assessment (WASPAS) multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) method has been developed for the evaluation and assessment of these sources. Thermal, gas, nuclear, solar, wind, biomass, and hydro energy options are used as alternatives in the present study. Initially, the fuzzy AHP method is applied to determine the weights of decision criteria, and fuzzy WASPAS is applied to prioritize sustainable energy (SE) alternatives. Subsequently, the output of the proposed model is validated by a two-step validation process: (i) fuzzy AHP integrated MCDM approaches, and (ii) Best-Worst Method (BWM) integrated fuzzy WASPAS approach. The developed decision support model will help the decision- makers to acquire sufficient confidence in evaluating energy sources for sustainable development of the energy sector in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Sustainability in supply chain is gaining attention in recent years due to environmental concern, enforced legislation, green issues, social responsibility, etc. Sustainable supply chain (SSC) has revolved around the various dimensions including economy, environment and societal factors since its inception. The purpose of this paper is to identify, prioritize and evaluate the indicators of SSC so that organizations can cultivate strategies to implement them on priority.Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a methodology based on fuzzy analytic hierarchy process to prioritize the indicators of SSC. A numerical analysis of Indian automotive industry is presented to demonstrate the use of the proposed method. This proposed method considered fuzzy framework that can handle impreciseness and uncertainty. Sensitivity analysis is also performed to test the robustness of the proposed model.Findings Potential indicators are identified from relevant literature and validated by industry experts. This research finalizes the SSC indicators under three dimensions so that prioritization of identified indicators can be developed and the insights relationship of factors would be explored. The results of the study found that environmental and social dimensions of sustainability contribute more toward the sustainability.Research limitations/implications This study is limited to identify evaluation factors and other factors have not been identified and categorized. Evaluation is done by experts in this area so it is natural that views of decision makers may be subjective and vary with regard to industry type, priorities, resources, etc.Practical implications This study will help industry to identify, evaluate and prioritize factors for successful implementation of sustainability in their supply chain. Automotive companies could device these factors by applying the outcome of the study in their operations with higher priority to integrate sustainability in their supply chain.Originality/value These factors are identified to implement sustain ability into supply chain practices for automotive industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Identified 30 agro-ecosystem specific sustainability indicators. • Sustainability indicators help in mapping the climate resilience of agriculture. • We propose a framework, "Climate Risk Management Package for Agriculture (CRiMPA)", to aid in planning interventions. The impending threats of changing climate have been well documented across sectors. The climate risks are best addressed through increasing adaptive capacity and building resilience. Ever since the global call during the Rio Summit in 1992 for establishing sustainability indicators across sectors, there have been several studies across the world on developing indicators for sustainability, vulnerability and climate resilience. Agriculture, the most vulnerable system to changing climate, depends on the resilience of both social and ecological systems. This paper focuses on integrating the variability of climate into the agricultural sustainability measurement with a broad base of indicators and bringing in the localized factors for representing the agroecosystem specificities. The paper also aims at identifying indicators for measuring climate resilient agriculture in Indian sub-continent and developing a conceptual framework for profiling the spatial resilience across various agro-ecosystems for appropriate location-specific policy interventions. In the current study 1209 indicators used in various research studies were screened, grouped for similarity and purpose and classified based on the various dimensions viz., social, economic, ecological, etc. After a critical review based on their appropriateness as a measurable indicator, extent of overlap, relevance in Indian context and possible data availability, 41 indicators were shortlisted for validation through a comprehensive structured online survey among subject matter specialists (n = 225). The responses from the experts (n = 36) were analysed using weighted sum model (WSM) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The study identifies a list of 30 sustainability indicators for climate resilient agriculture in India, that are particularly suitable for different agro-ecosystems of the sub-continent. The authors advocate an action-oriented model called Climate Risk Management Package for Agriculture (CRiMPA) to aid in planning spatial/agro-ecosystem specific interventions, which in turn could strengthen the National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC) of Government of 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]

e-Waste is generated at the staggering rate of 6.1 kg per person. In 2016, 44.7 million tonnes was generated globally, and the amount is estimated to reach 52 million tonnes annually by 2021. The management of this huge quantity of e-waste is a major problem across the world, primarily in developing countries. An effective e-waste management system is linked to the sustainability of e-waste processing plants, and currently it is plagued with different supply chain network (SCN) issues. To address the issues and challenges of SCN, there is a need to prioritize and address the constructs. The study thus combines two multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) tools, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and quality function deployment, to prioritize the constructs identified from literature and supported by field studies. The house of quality (HOQ) has been used for analyzing different stakeholders' requirements. The degree of importance for HOQ-1 has been derived using the AHP tool. The study revealed the most intriguing issues and challenges of e-waste processing plants considering the requirements of different stakeholders. The results showed formal collection, storage, semi-informal collection, and e-waste quality to be the major issues of processing plants. The findings obtained from MCDM analysis have been validated though two case studies in India and China. If the results obtained are applied to the existing e-waste SCN, a holistic e-waste management system can be achieved for developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]