Multi-objective fuzzy design of closed-loop supply chain network considering risks and environmental impact

Due to governmental, environmental, and economic concerns, the closed-loop supply chain network has attracted the attention of researchers. In this article, a multiproduct, multi-echelon, and multi-objective closed-loop supply chain network model in a fuzzy environment is proposed. The forward supply chain network includes raw material suppliers, virgin material suppliers, plants, distribution centers, and customer zones, while the reverse supply chain network is composed of customer zones, collection centers, refurbishing centers, dismantling centers, and decomposition centers. The objectives of this model are to minimize the total cost, waste, carbon dioxide, and risks. In order to solve the proposed model, a fuzzy multi-objective optimization method is used. A numerical example validates and verifies the practicability of the fuzzy model and solution method, and demonstrates the proposed model and method can be applied to solve real world problems.     

Fuzzy Multi-Objective Optimization of a Green Supply Chain Network with Risk Management that Includes Environmental Hazards

Among the leading environmental risks, global climate alteration has become one of the most important controversial issues. Greenhouse gas emissions (CO₂, methane, etc.) and air pollution have motivated a need to develop and improve environmental management strategies. As a consequence, environmental sanctions are forcing commercial enterprises to re-consider and re-design supply chain processes in a green way. This article provides a multi-objective model to design a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network in a green framework. Our first and second objectives are to minimize all the transportation costs for the supply chain's forward and reverse logistics; the third objective is to minimize total CO₂ emissions; the fourth objective is to encourage customers to use recyclable materials as an environmental practice. To provide more realistic modeling by treating the uncertainty in decision-makers’ objectives, fuzzy modeling is used in this study. The model is explained and tested via fulfilling a numerical example. In scenario analyses, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), fuzzy AHP (F-AHP), and fuzzy TOPSIS (F-TOPSIS) approaches were applied and compared to evaluate different objectives to guide decision-makers.     

Is LCC relevant in a sustainability assessment?

In a recent letter to the editor, Jørgensen et al. questioned that life cycle costing (LCC) is relevant in life cycle-based sustainability assessment (LCSA). They hold the opinion that environmental and social aspects are sufficient. We argue that sustainability has three dimensions: environment, economy, and social aspects in accordance with the well-accepted “three pillar interpretation” of sustainability, although this is not verbally stated in the Brundtland report (WCED 1987). An analysis of the historical development of the term “sustainability” shows that the economic and social component have been present from the beginning and conclude that LCSA of product systems can be approximated by LCSA = (environmental) LCA + (environmental) LCC + S-LCA where S-LCA stands for social LCA. The “environmental” LCC is fully compatible with life cycle assessment (LCA), the internationally standardized (ISO 14040 + 14044) method for environmental product assessment. For LCC, a SETAC “Code of Practice” is now available and guidelines for S-LCA have been published by UNEP/SETAC. First examples for the use of these guidelines have been published. An important practical argument for using LCC from the customers’ point of view is that environmentally preferable products often have higher purchasing costs, whereas the LCC may be much lower (examples: energy saving light bulbs, low energy houses, and cars). Also, since LCC allows an assessment for different actor perspectives, the producers may try to keep the total costs from their perspective below those of a conventional product: otherwise, it will not succeed at the market, unless highly subsidized. Those are practical aspects whichfinally decide about success or failure of “sustainable” products. Whether or not an analysis using all three aspects is necessary will depend on the exact question. However, if real money flows are important in sustainability analysis of product systems, inclusion of LCC is advisable.     

Corporate sustainability for architecture engineering and construction (AEC) organizations: Framework,transition and implication strategies

This research aims to propose a regenerative sustainability framework for AEC organizations, not only to focus on delivering green certified projects, but to encourage a revitalized approach to systematically drive their sustainability initiative. To achieve this aim, the study conducts an extensive global review of sustainable assessment systems in various industries and organizations, such as corporate sustainable reports, green company competitions, and green-renowned stocks. After learning the best practices from other industries, a sustainable development framework for the AEC organizations is developed. The proposed framework constitutes 110 key indicators covering three-dimensions of sustainability—social, environmental, and economic, respectively—and four-elements of corporate development essentials—projects, operations, governance, and stakeholders. By comparing the proposed framework to existing AEC practices, the study identifies the skewed development of corporate sustainability in the AEC industry where much awareness have been given to project-level environmental matters, but the social dimension, such as social stakeholders and social governance, are seriously lacking and need to be prioritized. A case study of a multi-millions construction company in China was investigated to validate this framework in practice. The case analysis justifies the practical value of the proposed framework, and elaborates the future need of regenerative sustainable initiatives for AEC organizations. The study contributes to the development of corporate sustainability theory in the AEC industry, and also provides industrial practitioners and policy makers with a better understanding of the next generation of corporate sustainable performance and implementation strategies.     

Life Cycle Tools within Ford of Europe's Product Sustainability Index. Case Study Ford S-MAX & Ford Galaxy (8 pp)

Background, Aim and Scope Sustainability is a well recognised goal which is difficult to manage due to its complexity. As part of a series of sustainability management tools, a Product Sustainability Index (PSI) is translating the sustainability aspects to the organization of vehicle product development of Ford of Europe, thus allocating ownership and responsibility to that function. PSI is limiting the scope to those key environmental, social and economic characteristics of passenger vehicles that are controllable by the product development organisation. Materials and Methods: The PSI considers environmental, economic and social aspects based on externally reviewed life cycle environmental and cost aspects (Life Cycle Assessment, Cost of ownership / Life Cycle Costing), externally certified aspects (allergy-tested interior) and related aspects as sustainable materials, safety, mobility capability and noise. After the kick-off of their product development in 2002, the new Ford S-MAX and Ford Galaxy are serving as a pilot for this tool. These products are launched in Europe in 2006. The tracking of PSI performance has been done by engineers of the Vehicle Integration department within the product development organization. The method has been translated in an easy spreadsheet tool. Engineers have been trained within one hour trainings. The application of PSI by vehicle integration followed the principle to reduce the need for any incremental time or additional data to a minimum. PSI is adopted to the existing decision-making process. End of 2005, an internal expert conducted a Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) study for verification purposes using commercial software. This study and the PSI have been scrutinized by an external review panel according to ISO14040 and, by taking into consideration the on-going SETAC, work in the field of LCC. Results: The results of the Life Cycle based indicators of PSI as calculated by non-experts are fully in line with those of the more detailed expert study. The difference is below 2%. The new Ford Galaxy and Ford S-MAX shows significantly improved performance regarding the life cycle air quality, use of sustainable materials, restricted substances and safety compared to the previous model Galaxy. The affordability (Life Cycle Cost of Ownership) has also been improved when looking at the same engine types. Looking at gasoline versus diesel options, the detailed study shows under what conditions the diesel options are environmentally preferable and less costly (mileage, fuel prices, etc.). Discussion: The robustness of results has been verified in various ways. Based also on Sensitivity and Monte-Carlo Analysis, case study-specific requirements have been deduced defining criteria for a significant environmental improvement between the various vehicles. Only if the differences of LCIA results between two vehicles are larger than a certain threshold are the above-mentioned results robust. Conclusions: In general terms, an approach has been implemented and externally reviewed that allows non-experts to manage key environmental, social and economic aspects in the product development, also on a vehicle level. This allows mainstream functions to take ownership of sustainability and assigns accountability to those who can really decide on changes affecting the sustainability performance. In the case of Ford S-MAX and Galaxy, indicators from all three dimensions of sustainability (environment, social and economic) have been improved compared to the old Ford Galaxy. Recommendations and Perspectives: Based on this positive experience, it is recommended to make, in large or multinational organizations, the core business functions directly responsible and accountable for managing their own part of environmental, social and economic aspects of sustainability. Staff functions should be limited to starting the process with methodological and training support and making sure that the contributions of the different main functions fit together.     

Indicators for assessing socioeconomic sustainability of bioenergy systems: A short list of practical measures

Indicators are needed to assess both socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems. Effective indicators can help to identify and quantify the sustainability attributes of bioenergy options. We identify 16 socioeconomic indicators that fall into the categories of social well-being, energy security, trade, profitability, resource conservation, and social acceptability. The suite of indicators is predicated on the existence of basic institutional frameworks to provide governance, legal, regulatory and enforcement services. Indicators were selected to be practical, sensitive to stresses, unambiguous, anticipatory, predictive, estimable with known variability, and sufficient when considered collectively. The utility of each indicator, methods for its measurement, and applications appropriate for the context of particular bioenergy systems are described along with future research needs. Together, this suite of indicators is hypothesized to reflect major socioeconomic effects of the full supply chain for bioenergy, including feedstock production and logistics, conversion to biofuels, biofuel logistics and biofuel end uses. Ten indicators are highlighted as a minimum set of practical measures of socioeconomic aspects of bioenergy sustainability. Coupled with locally prioritized environmental indicators, we propose that these socioeconomic indicators can provide a basis to quantify and evaluate sustainability of bioenergy systems across many regions in which they will be deployed.     

Introducing Templates for Sustainable Product Development

We have previously developed a method for sustainable product development (MSPD) based on backcasting from basic sustainability principles. The MSPD informs investigations of product‐related social and ecological sustainability aspects throughout a concurrent engineering product development process. We here introduce “templates” for sustainable product development (TSPDs) as a complement. The idea is to help product development teams to arrive faster and more easily at an overview of the major sustainability challenges and opportunities of a product category in the early development phases. The idea is also to inform creative communication between top management, stakeholders, and product developers. We present this approach through an evaluation case study, in which the TSPDs were used for a sustainability assessment of televisions (TVs) at the Matsushita Electric Group. We study whether the TSPD approach has the ability to (1) help shift focus from gradual improvements of a selection of aspects in relation to past environmental performance of a product category to a focus on the remaining gap to a sustainable situation, (2) facilitate consensus among organizational levels about major sustainability challenges and potential solutions for a product category, and (3) facilitate continued dialogue with external sustainability experts, identifying improvements that are relevant for strategic sustainable development. Our findings indicate that the TSPD approach captures overall sustainability aspects of the life cycle of product categories and that it has the above abilities.     

Multi-actor multi-criteria sustainability assessment framework for energy and industrial systems in life cycle perspective under uncertainties. Part 2: improved extension theory

Purpose

The concept of sustainability and sustainable development has been widely incorporated in energy and industrial systems. This paper is the second part of a two-paper series dealing with multi-actor multi-criteria sustainability assessment of alternative energy and industrial systems in life cycle perspective under uncertainties.

Methods

The criteria system including four macroscopic aspects (environmental, safety, social and economic aspects) has been developed for sustainability assessment of energy and industrial systems. An improved extension theory which can address interval decision-making matrix has been developed for determining the sustainability degree of the energy and industrial systems.

Results and discussion

The weights of the criteria for sustainability assessment are the first part of the two-paper series. An illustrative case has been studied by the proposed multi-criteria decision-making method, and the sustainability of six alternative options for the production of a 1-t product was investigated. The sustainability degree of these six alternative options can be determined by the proposed method.

Conclusions and perspectives

A methodology for multi-actor multi-criteria sustainability assessment of energy and industrial options has been developed in this study, the traditional extension theory has been modified to deal with the uncertainty problems and the proposed method can rank the alternative energy and industrial systems with the decision-making matrix in which the data of the alternatives with respect to the evaluation criteria are intervals. In the improved extension theory, sustainability has been dived into five grades: excellent, good, satisfied, barely adequate and fail. According to the method for calculating the weights of the criteria for sustainability assessment proposed in part 1, these weights were used to calculate the integrated dependent degree which is a measure of what degree an alternative belongs to the classical fields. An optimal programming model for maximizing the satisfied degree has been developed to rank the sustainability sequence of the alternative options and determine the sustainability degree of each alternative.

     

Integrating Human Health and Environmental Health into the DPSIR Framework: A Tool to Identify Research Opportunities for Sustainable and Healthy Communities

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recently realigned its research enterprise around the concept of sustainability. Scientists from across multiple disciplines have a role to play in contributing the information, methods, and tools needed to more fully understand the long-term impacts of decisions on the social and economic sustainability of communities. Success will depend on a shift in thinking to integrate, organize, and prioritize research within a systems context. We used the Driving forces–Pressures–State–Impact–Response (DPSIR) framework as a basis for integrating social, cultural, and economic aspects of environmental and human health into a single framework. To make the framework broadly applicable to sustainability research planning, we provide a hierarchical system of DPSIR keywords and guidelines for use as a communication tool. The applicability of the integrated framework was first tested on a public health issue (asthma disparities) for purposes of discussion. We then applied the framework at a science planning meeting to identify opportunities for sustainable and healthy communities research. We conclude that an integrated systems framework has many potential roles in science planning, including identifying key issues, visualizing interactions within the system, identifying research gaps, organizing information, developing computational models, and identifying indicators.     

可持续生态学

可持续生态学系用生态学原理和方法解决自然与社会经济协调发展问题,或者说生态学不断将人类及其社会经济活动纳入研究范畴而形成的自然科学与社会科学的交叉学科。40年来,我国在可持续生态学研究和实践领域取得了丰硕的成果,一是提出了"社会-经济-自然"复合生态系统理论;二是构建了适应中国国情的可持续发展评价指标体系;三是推进实施了国家可持续发展战略,并在不同时空尺度进行了试点示范;四是将可持续发展的区域生态安全格局和生态风险管理理论与方法应用于城市与区域发展规划中,并利用生态补偿机制推进跨域的生态安全格局建设;五是为国家生态文明建设规划纲要的出台提供了重要的科学支撑,有力地推进了生态文明建设战略的实施;六是系统地研究了全球气候变化对中国生态系统的影响,科学评估了气候变化的现状、趋势及其影响,提出了气候变化的生态适应对策;七是不断推进国家和地方层面的生态省、生态市、生态县建设,创建了不同层次和规模的可持续发展实验区、国家可持续发展议程创新示范区、生态农业试点示范县、生态工业示范园区等。本文从宏观生态学与可持续发展、生态城市与可持续发展、生态产业与可持续发展三个方面评述可持续性生态学的研究进展。可持续生态学的重点研究内容随着时代发展而不断更新,生态文明建设、生态安全格局构建、落实联合国2030可持续发展目标、应对全球环境变化、新型城市化和工业化对生态系统的影响等是当前和未来一段时间的研究热点。     

Selection and modeling sustainable urbanization indicators: A responsibility-based method

The responsibility borne by governmental departments measured by a set of indicators is a key factor affecting the performance of urban sustainability. Thus, responsibility analysis can guide the selection of sustainability indicators. In line with the principle of Management by Objective (MBO), this paper aims to introduce a responsibility-based method, named Strategic goal-Responsibility department-Response (SRR), for selecting sustainable urbanization indicators. By applying this method, indicators are selected from the perspective of concerned departments’ responsibility. In developing the SRR model, the tool of Responsibility Assignment Matrix is used to identify the concerned departments who assume responsibilities in the process of implementing sustainable urbanization. The content analysis is used to analyze the work scope and definitions of the concerned departments and sustainable urbanization indicators that can measure the responsibility performance of the concerned departments are filtered out. A case study of Jinan city in China is used to demonstrate the procedures of using the proposed method. Based on the strategic goals of Jinan city, 20 responsibility departments and 152 initial indicators are identified by using the SRR framework. The case study reveals that the method is a feasible and effective tool in assisting policy makers to select sustainable urbanization indicators.     

Development of composite sustainability performance index for steel industry

The steel companies are becoming increasingly aware about the sustainability challenges. In order to become a responsible corporate citizen, the industry has responded to these challenges through adoption of pillars of sustainability. The industry has made the beginning with identification of sustainability indicators. The indicators have been developed specifically for steel industry. Generally, it is quite difficult to evaluate the performance of company on the basis of large number of sustainability indicators. Integration of key sustainability indicators is quite essential for decision-making. Composite indicators are an innovative approach to evaluate sustainable performance. This paper presents a method for development of composite sustainability performance index (CSPI) that addresses the sustainable performance of steel industries along all the three pillars of sustainability—economic, environmental and societal. Organizational governance and technical aspects have also been considered fourth and fifth dimensions of sustainability.The objective of this paper is to introduce sustainability and to present a conceptual decision model, using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) to assist in evaluating the impact of an organization's sustainability performance. AHP has been used to determine the weights at various levels. Sub-indices have been evaluated and aggregated to form CSPI. The effectiveness of the proposed model is evaluated in a case study for a major steel company in India.     

Sustainability in Supply Chain Management: Aggregate Planning from Sustainability Perspective

Supply chain management that considers the flow of raw materials, products and information has become a focal issue in modern manufacturing and service systems. Supply chain management requires effective use of assets and information that has far reaching implications beyond satisfaction of customer demand, flow of goods, services or capital. Aggregate planning, a fundamental decision model in supply chain management, refers to the determination of production, inventory, capacity and labor usage levels in the medium term. Traditionally standard mathematical programming formulation is used to devise the aggregate plan so as to minimize the total cost of operations. However, this formulation is purely an economic model that does not include sustainability considerations. In this study, we revise the standard aggregate planning formulation to account for additional environmental and social criteria to incorporate triple bottom line consideration of sustainability. We show how these additional criteria can be appended to traditional cost accounting in order to address sustainability in aggregate planning. We analyze the revised models and interpret the results on a case study from real life that would be insightful for decision makers.     

Sustainability Indicators at the Firm Level

After reviewing recent attempts to develop sustainability indicators, this article shows how the principles of productive efficiency can be used to elaborate such indicators at the firm level. The theory of productive efficiency is somewhat expanded to incorporate fundamental issues of sustainable development: environment, equity, and futurtty. Efficiency, in the expanded notion of productive efficiency, is viewed as a necessary condition for sustainability. Working with aggregate performance indicators, it is important not to lose track of the relevant basic information. Therefore, instead of elaborating one unique indicator; we propose to implement several kinds of indicators, each of which stresses one particular focus (e.g., environmental vs. social concems). The definition of sustainable development indicators is illustrated with reference to a small data set of U.S. fossil fuel-fired electric utilities. In a sustainabiltty perspective, two important aspects are stressed, namely, the use of nonmewable resources and the inclusion of employment as a variable to maximize rather than an input to minimize. The article ends with a discussion of the significance of, and limits to, the proposed indicators.     

基于NLPCA-GSO可持续发展评价——以环渤海区域为例

区域可持续发展水平、发展的持续性和系统的协调性是区域可持续发展定量评价研究的三角构架,而在传统上基于各子系统主成分分析结果直接进行形色各异的加权计算对可持续发展评价而言是有待商榷的。提出了非线性主成分分析和施密特正交化(NLPCA-GSO)相耦合的方法评价区域的可持续发展水平来弥补传统方法的不足,并由此建立区域发展持续性模型和可持续发展系统协调度模型,再以环渤海区域为实证分析其2001—2010年的可持续发展状况。结果表明:基于NLPCA-GSO的可持续发展水平模型可以很好地弥补传统主成分分析及对各子系统结果的综合评价的不足;区域发展持续性模型、协调性模型和区域可持续系统变化的滤波分析形象地揭示区域可持续发展的实质和内涵;实证研究表明环渤海区域在研究时段内可持续发展水平有所上升,而环境子系统持续性的下降是引起区域发展持续性和系统协调度的变化的主要原因。研究结果可丰富区域可持续发展评价的方法学,也可为环渤海区域的可持续发展研究奠定基础。     

Development of social sustainability assessment method and a comparative case study on assessing recycled construction materials

Purpose

Sustainability analysis should include the assessment of the environmental, social, and economic impacts throughout the life cycle of a product. However, the social sustainability performance assessment is seldom carried out during materials selection due to its complex nature and the lack of a social life cycle assessment tool. This study presents a single score-based social life cycle assessment methodology, namely social sustainability grading model, for assessing and comparing the social sustainability performance of construction materials using a case study on recycled and natural construction materials.

Methods

The proposed method is developed based on the methodological framework provided by the United Nations Environment Programme/Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry guidelines published in 2009 and the methodological sheets published in 2013, the indicators and sustainability reporting guidelines provided by the Global Reporting Initiatives and ISO 26000 for social responsibility of products, and the indicators provided by the Hong Kong Business Environment Council Limited for construction sustainability. A twofold research approach is proposed in this model: the first one is the qualitative research based on expert interviews to identify, select, and prioritize the relevant subcategories and indicators, and the second one is the operational research based on the case-specific survey to collect the required data. A social sustainability index was proposed for the interpretation of the results effectively. A case study on construction materials was conducted to illustrate the implementation of the method using case-specific first-hand data.

Results and discussion

The major outcome of this study is the systematic development of a social sustainability assessment tool based on the established standards and guidelines. The case study showed that four subcategories are crucial social concerns for construction materials (i.e., health and safety issues of the materials, health and safety of workers, company’s commitment to sustainability, and company’s policies on energy and water consumption). Based on the sustainability index proposed, using recycled aggregates from locally generated waste materials scored higher (about 31–34%) social sustainability than using imported natural aggregates. In addition, recycled aggregates and natural aggregates achieved “sustainable” and “neutral” rating sustainability levels, respectively. However, several subcategories (e.g., health and safety, working hour, forced work, training and social benefits of workers, and quality of the materials and information disclosing to public) are still needed to improve the social sustainability performance of recycled aggregates.

Conclusions

An integrated social life cycle assessment method is presented in this study for assessing the social sustainability of construction materials. In addition, the reported case study in this paper is one of the first attempts for social sustainability assessment of recycled construction materials, and the method can be applied to other recycled materials/products for comparative analysis. However, several critical factors, such as integration in other life cycle methods and software, sensitivity analysis, and more case studies, are still needed for further improvement of the developed method.

     

Assessing the social dimension in strategic network optimization for a sustainable development: The case of bioethanol production in the EU

The complexity of social indicators and their subjective and often qualitative nature render their inclusion into quantitative optimization models for network design and strategic decision-making challenging. The social dimension is thus often implemented only rudimentarily, thwarting a holistic sustainability assessment and neglecting many of the social issues addressed in the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This work presents a structured process for including a comprehensive set of social aspects by selecting applicable quantitative and regionalized social indicators. This approach is applied to the case of second-generation bioethanol production in the EU. Based on inter alia the Guidelines for Social Life Cycle Assessment of Products and Organizations, the Social Hotspots Database, state-of-the-art literature, as well as previous work, we compile 9 social objective functions and 25 functions for social hotspot identification. They are evaluated alongside 1 economic and 21 environmental LCA-based objective functions in a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. Key results show that social optimization either leads to large, labor-intensive or regionally focused, indicator-driven networks. Injuries and fatalities in the feedstock sectors of Central and Eastern European countries is the primary social hotspot. On the level of the overarching SDGs, SDG13 is most congruent with other goals, while SDG7 is hindered by pursuing other goals. This study's approach is novel in strategic network design and the European bioeconomy, and, by operationalizing the social dimension, enables a more holistic life cycle sustainability assessment and the consideration of the SDGs. This article met the requirements for a gold-gold JIE data openness badge described at http://jie.click/badges .      

Sustainability indicators for municipalities of megacities: Integrating health,safety and environmental performance

The sustainability assessment of public sector organizations including municipalities, with a focus on the integration of health, safety, and environmental (HSE) issues in the context of sustainability performance indicators, has almost remained underexplored. Moreover, since a large number of the activities of megacities’ municipalities have directly to do with HSE issues, there seems to be a substantial gap in the study of megacities and corresponding local public administrations. The present study is aimed at developing a performance evaluation tool, supported by indicators, to monitor the HSE aspects of sustainable development in the municipalities of megacities. To put the proposed tool into practice, a set of performance evaluation indicators is proposed to be adopted in Iranian municipalities, integrated in the megacity of Tehran. The selection process was conducted by employing Delphi technique. In doing so, a 2-round questionnaire was responded by qualified experts to select the most robust indicators of HSE performance and evaluate the priority of each indicator. A total of 80 indicators were generated and grouped into 13 categories, 29 sub-categories, and 7 themes- (Health (H), Safety (S), Environment (E), Health-Safety (HS), Health-Environment (HE), Safety-Environment (SE), and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE)). Findings indicate that amongst the overall average score of the 13 categories, “Fire and emergency response” is the most important category, closely followed by “Waste”, “Transportation”, and “Natural systems” categories. Moreover, among the 7 proposed themes, the integrated “HSE theme”, nearly followed by “safety theme”, plays the most significant role in enhancing the HSE performance of sustainability in Tehran municipalities. It is concluded that in the HSE context of the megacities municipalities under scrutiny, social aspects of sustainability gain more attention in comparison with the environmental ones. Furthermore, in municipalities of megacities, the indicators related to health and safety could be considered as ‘key indicators’ and should be thus classified into independent categories so that their roles can be highlighted in the management and assessment of municipal sustainable development.     

Stochastic decision modeling for sustainable pavement designs

Purpose

In the USA, several studies have been conducted to analyze the energy consumption and atmospheric emissions of Warm-mix Asphalt (WMA) pavements. However, the direct and indirect environmental, economic, and social impacts, termed as Triple-Bottom-Line (TBL), were not addressed sufficiently. Hence, the aim of this study is to develop TBL-oriented sustainability assessment model to evaluate the environmental and socio-economic impacts of pavements constructed with different types of WMA mixtures and compare them to a conventional Hot-mix Asphalt (HMA). The types of WMA technologies investigated in this research include Asphamin® WMA, Evotherm? WMA, and Sasobit® WMA.

Methods

To achieve this goal, supply and use tables published by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis were merged with 16 macro-level sustainability metrics. A hybrid TBL-LCA model was built to evaluate the life-cycle sustainability performance of using WMA technologies in construction of asphalt pavements. The impacts on the sustainability were calculated in terms of socio-economic (import, income, gross operating surplus, government tax, work-related injuries, and employment) and environmental (water withdrawal, energy use, carbon footprint, hazardous waste generation, toxic releases into air, and land use). A stochastic compromise programming model was then developed for finding the optimal allocation of different pavement types for the U.S. highways.

Results and discussion

WMAs did not perform better in terms of environmental impacts compared to HMA. Asphamin® WMA was found to have the highest environmental and socio-economic impacts compared to other pavement types. Material extractions and processing phase had the highest contribution to all environmental impact indicators that shows the importance of cleaner production strategies for pavement materials. Based on stochastic compromised programming results, in a balanced weighting situation, Sasobit® WMA had the highest percentage of allocation (61 %); while only socio-economic aspects matter, Asphamin® WMA had the largest share (57 %) among the asphalt pavements. The optimization results also supported the significance of an increased WMA use in the U.S. highways.

Conclusions

This research complemented previous LCA studies by evaluating pavements not only from environmental emissions and energy consumption standpoint, but also from socio-economic perspectives. Multi-objective optimization results also provided important insights for decision makers when finding the optimum allocation of pavement alternatives based on different environmental and socio-economic priorities. Consequently, this study aimed to increase awareness of the inherent benefits of economic input–output analysis and multi-criteria decision making through application to emerging sustainable pavement practices.     

露水河林业局森林多目标经营规划设计

改变单一经营目标的传统森林经营方式,进行森林多目标经营,综合发挥森林的生态、社会与经济功能是我国林业发展的一个新阶段。如何从一个生产单位的角度出发,统筹森林利用和保护相关的社会、经济及环境等各方面,进行多目标规划和决策,是林业研究和实践中的重要命题。以长白山区露水河林业局为例,探讨了森林多目标经营的必要性,设计了森林多目标经营的规划设计体系,从群落生境分析、发展类型设计、林分作业设计以及生命周期经营计划设计等方面对露水河林业局森林多目标经营进行了规划设计,以期为我国开展森林多目标经营提供借鉴和手段支撑。