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.     

A Conceptual Model for Analyzing the Risks Involved in the Transportation of Hazardous Goods: Implementation in a Geographic Information System

The transportation of hazardous goods by road implies a risk for both humans and the environment, in that an accident involving a vehicle transporting this kind of material may cause extensive material and environmental damage and might even endanger lives. For this reason, both public and private entities (e.g., insurance companies) have a growing interest in studies that assess the risks associated with hazardous goods transportation This article describes a method for calculating these risks. The risk is determined on the basis of a calculation of the probability of the occurrence of an accident and the gravity of the damage, which is in turn a function of the potential damage inherent in the goods being transported taken with the vulnerability of the environmental medium in which the accident takes place. The mathematical model proposed is easily implemented in a geographical information system that will produce risk maps delimiting the more potentially conflictive stretches of roadway.     

Minimizing Environmental Risks Using Fuzzy TOPSIS: Location Selection for the ITU Faculty of Management

ABSTRACT

Environmental risk is a measure of potential threats to the environment and combines the probability that events will cause or lead to degradation of the environment and the severity of that degradation. Evaluation of environmental risk factors requires linguistic terms to be used rather than exact numerical assignments. The fuzzy set theory provides a useful tool for converting linguistic terms into numerical evaluations. In this article, we will try to select the best location for the Faculty of Management of the Istanbul Technical University taking care of the predetermined environmental criteria by using fuzzy TOPSIS. The decision matrix is composed of linguistic evaluations for the alternatives with respect to the environmental risk criteria. The Macka Campus area has been selected after the multicriteria evaluation. A sensitivity analysis is also realized to see if the minor changes in criteria weights cause any change in the ranking of alternatives. Unless the importance of the criteria rock or soil structure, remoteness to health facilities, transportation availability, and transportation costs is changed to be from low to extremely low importance, the Macka Campus is still the selected alternative.     

Integrated environmental risk assessment approach for transportation modes

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to develop and implement new integrated environmental risk assessment for transportation activities. With this purpose, environmental risks occur from transportation activities from different transportation modes which are air, road, sea and rail are determined. Transportation modes are compared with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) approach in order to obtain importance weights and impact categories of air, soil and water are used as criteria where the weights are determined with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). For the risk assessment process, Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) has been used and prioritizations of risks are calculated with weights of the calculated transportation modes. In the study, integrated multi-criteria decision-making methods with the classic FMEA method with different categories of impacts reveal new multidimensional perspective to classic environmental risk assessment methods.     

A fuzzy multi-objective optimization model for sustainable reverse logistics network design

Decreasing the environmental impact, increasing the degree of social responsibility, and considering the economic motivations of organizations are three significant features in designing a reverse logistics network under sustainability respects. Developing a model, which can simultaneously consider these environmental, social, and economic aspects and their indicators, is an important problem for both researchers and practitioners. In this paper, we try to address this comprehensive approach by using indicators for measurement of aforementioned aspects and by applying fuzzy mathematical programming to design a multi-echelon multi-period multi-objective model for a sustainable reverse logistics network. To reflect all aspects of sustainability, we try to minimize the present value of costs, as well as environmental impacts, and optimize the social responsibility as objective functions of the model. In order to deal with uncertain parameters, fuzzy mathematical programming is used, and to obtain solutions on Pareto front, a customized multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) algorithm is applied. The validity of the proposed solution procedure has been analyzed in small and large size test problems based on four comparison metrics and computational time using analysis of variance. Finally, in order to indicate the applicability of the suggested model and the practicality of the proposed solution procedure, the model has been implemented in a medical syringe recycling system. The results reveal that the suggested MOPSO algorithm overtakes epsilon-constraint method from the aspects of quality of the solutions as well as computational time. Proper use of the proposed process could help managers efficiently manage the flow of recycled products with regard to environmental and social considerations, and the process offers a sustainable competitive advantage to corporations.     

Incorporating environmental aspects in an inventory routing problem. A case study from the petrochemical industry

Carbon emissions from transport activities in a supply chain are extensively contributing to global warming. However, the focus of literature in the field of sustainable supply chain management is mainly on production processes or network design decisions, considering transportation as a “necessary evil”. Consequently, transport activities are often accounted for in a rather simplified way in the analyses and are rarely analyzed on a high level of detail. Thereby the actual impacts transport processes have on the economic and environmental performance of a company are distorted. Our work focuses solely on the analysis of transport processes and shows the economic and environmental effects of routing decisions in a supply chain with vertical collaboration, for instance through vendor-managed inventory. We propose an Inventory Routing Model and apply it to a case study from the petrochemical industry. The outcome from this detailed transport analysis is then compared with results from former studies, where the main focus was on facility location decisions rather than on transportation decisions. The results point out the importance of detailed transport process analyses in order to get accurate results and suggest a potential for achieving pareto-improvements by reducing at the same time both costs and carbon emissions in a supply chain with vertical collaboration.     

A Simulation-Assessment Modeling Approach for Analyzing Environmental Risks of Groundwater Contamination at Waste Landfill Sites

An integrated simulation-assessment modeling approach for analyzing environmental risks of groundwater contamination is proposed in this paper. It incorporates an analytical groundwater solute transport model, an exposure dose model, and a fuzzy risk assessment model within a general framework. The transport model is used for predicting contaminant concentrations in subsurface, and the exposure dose model is used for calculating contaminant ingestion during the exposure period under given exposure pathways. Both models are solved through the Monte Carlo simulation technique to reflect the associated uncertainties. Based on consideration of fuzzy relationships between exposure doses and cancer risks, risk levels of different exposure doses for each contaminant can be calculated to form a fuzzy relation matrix. The overall risks can then be quantified through further fuzzy synthesizing operations. Thus, probabilistic quantification of different risk levels (possibilities) can be realized. Results of the case study indicate that environmental risks at the waste landfill site can be effectively analyzed through the developed methodology. They are useful for supporting the related risk-management and remediation decisions.     

Technical and Policy Challenges in Developing and Implementing Risk-Based Environmental Regulations

The reform in environmental regulations being considered at both federal and state levels is intended to enhance the value and effectiveness of a rule by incorporating risk assessment and cost benefit analysis in the rule making process or regulatory implementation. Although a risk based approach may not provide a panacea to all environmental problem solving, it offers some obvious advantages over the status quo. In particular, it establishes a scientifically defensible basis for evaluating the trade off between risks, costs and benefits in making prudent environmental decisions and developing effective regulatory policies. This paper presents a conceptual framework for risk reduction, summarizes the current status in risk-based legislation at the federal level, provides examples of how various states are using risk based approaches in their regulatory programs, addresses aspects of technical and policy challenges in rule making and other policy and enforcement decisions and provides suggestions for meeting these challenges.     

Sustainable reverse logistics network design for household plastic waste

Plastic recycling is a legal requirement and can yield environmental benefits. In the Netherlands, there is a complex network of various collection methods, separation centers, sorting centers and reprocessors. The first step of the recycling system, separating plastics from other waste, can occur within households (source-separation) or in separation centers (post-separation), making a difference in collection channel choice and technology requirements. The purpose of this paper is to provide decision support on choosing the most suitable combination of separation methods in the Netherlands. Decision support is given through optimized reverse logistics network design which makes the overall recycling system more efficient and sustainable, while taking into account the interests of various stakeholders (municipalities, households, etc.). A mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model, which minimizes both transportation cost and environmental impact, is used in this network design. The research follows the approach of scenario study; the baseline scenario is the current situation and other scenarios are designed with various strategic alternatives. Modeling is conducted by using a graphical optimization tool IBM LogicNet Plus 7.1. Comparing these scenarios, the results show that the current network settings of the baseline situation is efficient in logistics terms but has a potential to adapt to strategic changes, depending on the assumptions regarding availability of the required processing facilities to treat plastic waste. In some of the tested scenarios, a separate collection channel for Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles is cost efficient and saves carbon emission. Although the figures differ depending on the separation method choices of municipalities, our modeling result of all the tested scenarios shows a saving of more than 25 % carbon emission compared to the current network.     

A GIS-based risk reduction approach for the hazardous materials routing problem in Gaziantep

The transportation of hazardous materials assumes a fundamental importance, especially in urban areas, in order to identify possible alternative routes and to choose the route with minimum risk. Therefore, considering minimization risk rather than minimization distance to prevent a potential danger being transformed into a real event is necessary. In this article , a geographic information system (GIS)–based solution approach is developed to quantify the factors on each link in the network that contribute to a possible route. Based on the origin and destination of each shipment, the risks associated with the routes that minimize (1) the transport distance, (2) the population exposure, (3) the probability of an incident, and (4) the emergency response are evaluated. Proposed risk models are applied to fuel-oil transportation problem between resource point and 78 gasoline stations through the road network of Gaziantep city center. Results show that the proposed framework can contribute to the thought processes of policy-makers and carriers when they evaluate possible routes in order to minimize damage for transporting fuel oil.     

Rethinking Environmental Performance from a Public Health Perspective: A Comparative Industry Analysis

To date the most common measures of environmental performance used to compare industries, and by extension firms or facilities, have been quantity of pollution emitted or hazardous waste generated. Discharge information, however, does not necessarily capture potential health effects. We propose an alternative environmental performance measure that includes the public health risks of toxic air emissions extended to industry supply chains using economic input-output life-cycle assessment. Cancer risk to the U.S. population was determined by applying a damage function to the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) as modeled by CalTOX, a multimedia multipathway fate and exposure model. Risks were then translated into social costs using cancer willingness to pay. For a baseline emissions year of 1998, 260 excess cancer cases were calculated for 116 TRI chemicals, dominated by ingestion risk from polycyclic aromatic compounds and dioxins emitted by the primary aluminum and cement industries, respectively. The direct emissions of a small number of industry sectors account for most of the U.S. population cancer risk. For the majority of industry sectors, however, cancer risk per $1 million output is associated with supply chain upstream emissions. Ranking industries by total (direct + upstream) supply chain risk per economic output leads to different conclusions about the relative hazards associated with these industries than a conventional ranking based on emissions per economic output.     

Environmental Assessment of Two Waste Incineration Strategies for Central Norway (10 pp)

Background, Aims and Scope A strategy of local incineration with 17 small incinerators (Scenario L) is compared to a strategy of 3 centralized waste incinerators (Scenario C) for the region of Central Norway, in order to assess differences in environmental performance. Rough calculations of costs are also included. The functional unit is the treatment of municipal, commercial and special waste not recycled, plus the heating of a specific number of households, for the period of 2002 to 2020. Methods Data on large and small scale incinerators were obtained from technology providers. LCA databases were used for transportation and heating, while cost estimates and Norwegian input-output tables were used for the construction of the facilities. The CML2 method was used to evaluate the impacts. Results and Discussion Transportation is a major contributor to aquatic toxicity and acidification as well as CO2 emissions. Impacts from construction are considerable for photochemical oxidation, while incineration is important for terrestrial toxicity and CO2 emissions. Conclusion Construction and operation of treatment facilities are, together with transportation, the main processes making a difference between the two strategies. Substantial gains will come from the reduction in transportation need when introducing a local incineration strategy. When considering a time span of two decades, the centralized scenario is about 2.5 to 5 times the impact potential of the local scenario for most impact categories, in terms of cumulative results. Cost estimates for the two solutions support these findings, as cumulated costs also favors a local solution. Recommendation and Outlook Transportation is a major contributor to several impact categories, and especially the transportation of special waste should become more efficient in terms of transportation distances. Cost estimates support the environmental assessment, but a more comprehensive economic study of the system would be valuable.     

Variable impact transportation (VIT) model for energy and environmental impact of hauling truck operation

Purpose

Fuel economy and emissions of heavy-duty trucks greatly vary based on vehicular/environmental conditions. Large-scale infrastructure construction projects require a large amount of material/equipment transportation. Single-parameter generic hauling models may not be the best option for an accurate estimation of hauling contribution in life cycle assessment (LCA) involving construction projects; therefore, more precise data and parameterized models are required to represent this contribution. This paper discusses key environmental/operational variables and their impact on transportation of materials and equipment; a variable-impact transportation (VIT) model accounting for these variables was developed to predict environmental impacts of hauling.

Methods

The VIT model in the form of multi-nonlinear regression equations was developed based on simulations using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) to compute all the impact categories in EPA’s TRACI 2.1 and energy consumption of transportation. Considering actual driving cycles of hauling trucks recorded during a pavement rehabilitation project, the corresponding environmental impacts were calculated, and sensitivity analyses were performed. In addition, an LCA case study based on historical pavement reconstruction projects in Illinois was conducted to analyze the contribution of transportation and variability of its impacts during the pavements’ life cycle.

Results and discussion

The importance of vehicle driving cycles was realized from simulation results. The case study results showed that considering driving cycles using the VIT model could increase the contribution of hauling in total life cycle Global Warming Potential (GWP) and total life cycle GWP itself by 2–4 and 3–5%, respectively. In addition to GWP, ranges of other hauling-related impact categories including Smog, Ozone Depletion, Acidification, and Primary Energy Demand from fuel were presented based on the case study. Ozone Depletion ranged from 9 to 45%, and Smog ranged from 11 to 48% of the total relevant life cycle impacts. The GWP contribution of hauling in pavement LCA ranged between 5 and 32%. The results indicate that the contribution of hauling transportation can be significant in pavement LCA.

Conclusions

For large-scale roadway infrastructure construction projects that need a massive amount of material transportation, high fidelity models and data should be used especially for comparative LCAs that can be used as part of decision making between alternatives. The VIT model provides a simple analytical platform to include the critical vehicular/operational variables without any dependence on an external software; the model can also be incorporated in those studies where some of the transportation activity data are available.

     

Justice and Surgical Innovation: The Case of Robotic Prostatectomy

Surgical innovation promises improvements in healthcare, but it also raises ethical issues including risks of harm to patients, conflicts of interest and increased injustice in access to health care. In this article, we focus on risks of injustice, and use a case study of robotic prostatectomy to identify features of surgical innovation that risk introducing or exacerbating injustices. Interpreting justice as encompassing matters of both efficiency and equity, we first examine questions relating to government decisions about whether to publicly fund access to innovative treatments. Here the case of robotic prostatectomy exemplifies the difficulty of accommodating healthcare priorities such as improving the health of marginalized groups. It also illustrates challenges with estimating the likely long‐term costs and benefits of a new intervention, the difficulty of comparing outcomes of an innovative treatment to those of established treatments, and the further complexity associated with patient and surgeon preferences. Once the decision has been made to fund a new procedure, separate issues of justice arise at the level of providing care to individual patients. Here, the case of robotic prostatectomy exemplifies how features of surgical innovation, such as surgeon learning curves and the need for an adequate volume of cases at a treatment centre, can exacerbate injustices associated with treatment cost and the logistics of travelling for treatment. Drawing on our analysis, we conclude by making a number of recommendations for the just introduction of surgical innovations.     

Risks and costs to human health of sulfide-ore mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

Abstract

Sulfide-ore copper nickel (SOCN) mining is being considered in water-rich Minnesota. Given pollution resulting from SOCN mining elsewhere, careful scrutiny is necessary examining the risks associated. Health considerations of mining within the Rainy River Watershed, the geographic region at the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), Ontario’s Quetico Park (Quetico), and Voyageurs National Park (VNP) are examined. This discussion considers toxins released from SOCN mining, examines data regarding degradation of water quality and deleterious environmental impact from SOCN mining elsewhere, considers the most vulnerable populations, and recognizes the broader effects to public health as well as benefits of existing wilderness. Recent federal decisions to reinstate mineral leases and abort the environmental assessment process have placed this unique and irreplaceable region of our country at substantial risk. The overall health and wellness of this region will very likely be negatively affected by SOCN mining, and economic costs will predictably outweigh benefits. In addition, negative impacts on water, fish and wild rice will likely degrade nutritional and tribal resources resulting in violation of usufructuary rights of tribal communities.     

Types of Integration in Risk Assessment and Management,And Why They Are Needed

Risk-based decision making requires that the decision makers and stakeholders are informed of all risks that are potentially significant and relevant to the decision. The International Programme on Chemical Safety of the World Health Organization has developed a framework for integrating the assessment of human health and ecological risks. However, other types of integration are needed to support particular environmental decisions. They are integration of exposure and effects, of multiple chemicals and other hazardous agents, of multiple routes of exposure, of multiple endpoints, multiple receptors, multiple spatial and temporal scales, a product's life cycle, management alternatives, and socioeconomics with risk assessment. Inclusion of all these factors in an integrated assessment could lead to paralysis by analysis. Therefore, it is important that assessors be cognizant of the decision process and that decision makers and those who will influence the decision (stakeholders) be involved in planning the assessment to ensure that the degree of integration is necessary and sufficient.     

An approach to assess logistics and ecological supply chain performance using postponement strategies

This paper presents a methodology that helps managers evaluate how to assess the impact of postponement on supply chain performance considering logistics and ecological criteria. We consider a green supply chain design that considers CO₂ transport emissions under different postponement strategy scenarios using a simulation tool. The paper focuses on a relevant extension of postponement theory by including green considerations into the evaluation of postponement strategies in green supply chain design. Moreover, it provides some insight on how to measure and evaluate the impact of postponement regarding supply chain transport performance, considering different transport mode (container ocean ship and truck) using the European Platform on Life-Cycle Assessment (EPLCA) of ELCD – European Life-Cycle Database. The study has demonstrated that logistics and packing postponement strategies can improve the performance of logistics (total inventory and order lead-time) and, at the same time contribute to reducing the environmental impact of CO₂ emissions from transportation process.     

Optimizing construction schedules and material deliveries in city logistics: a case study from the building industry

We consider the problem of designing a logistics system to assure efficient urban construction processes for an innovative urban building area in the city of Vienna. We address the challenges of coordinating workers and the timely delivery and storage of material with the objective of optimizing resource-efficiency as well as reducing traffic related to construction tasks. The problem is formulated as a hierarchical optimization problem, incorporating tactical construction logistics planning as well as operational construction logistics planning. On the tactical level a time schedule of tasks for different construction phases and the corresponding material transports and storage decisions are optimized on a weekly basis, while on the operational level the daily optimization of material transports, modeled as an inventory routing problem, is addressed. A mixed-integer programming formulation of the problem on each planning level is provided and solved using CPLEX. The suggested approach is tested on realistic data from the city of Vienna. The results associated with different scenarios are analyzed to illustrate the value of the proposed approach for the design of construction logistics processes.

     

How to evaluate the environmental safety of microbial plant protection products: A proposal

Plant protection products with active micro-organisms are allegedly less hazardous to the environment and wildlife than synthetic chemical pesticides. Nevertheless, they need a proper pre-marketing environmental safety evaluation because of their potential toxicity and pathogenicity. Scientific and technical guidance on such a safety evaluation for regulatory purposes is scarce. Therefore, a risk decision tree is proposed to provide such guidance and to discern the acceptable from the unacceptable environmental risks. The decision tree is based on the risk criteria of the European Union. It takes integrally into account the characterisation, identification and efficacy and also emission, exposure, environmental effects and, finally, the environmental risk assessment. Case by case expert judgement remains necessary in view of limited knowledge of microbial ecology, limited experience with regulatory test protocols and taxonomic difficulties in relation to the indigenousness of active micro-organisms. The decision tree offers regulatory guidance on the environmental safety evaluation of microbial plant protection products.     

Environmental risk assessment of dams at constructional phase using VIKOR and EFMEA methods (Case study: Balarood Dam,Iran)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the environmental risk of Balarood Dam in Iran at constructional phase. The scientific methods used in this research were the Environmental Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (EFMEA) and VIKOR. In the process of environmental risk assessment, the EFMEA method was used first to calculate the risk priority number (RPN) for each environmental aspect. The identified risks were ranked based on RPN values in the next stage. Comparison of the RPN values showed that the risk of pollution of Balarood River, with a RPN of 125, is in the first priority. In addition, the environmental risks, identified during the follow-up phase, were weighted by entropy method based on severity, occurrence probability, and extent of pollution.Then, the VIKOR method, as one of the multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, was run to evaluate and prioritize the potential environmental risks. The risk of water pollution under high, medium and low conditions, with a weight of 1,300, 1,000 and 700, was identified as the most important risk of dam construction. Accordingly, the most important corrective action, proposed to mitigate the high priority environmental risks, is to prevent the discharge of sanitary and industrial wastewater into the river.