Development of an assessment method for evaluation of sustainable factories

Abstract

The role of the industrial sector in total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and resource consumption is well-known, and many industrial activities may have a negative environmental impact. The solution to decreasing the negative effects cannot be effective without the consideration of sustainable development. There are several methods for sustainability evaluation, such as tools based on products, processes, or plants besides supply chain or life cycle analysis, and there are different rating systems suggesting 80, 140, or more indicators for assessment. The critical point is the limits such as required techniques and budget in using all indicators for all factories in the beginning. Moreover, the weight of each indicator might change based on the selected alternative that it is not a fixed value and could change in a new case study. In this regard, to determine the impact and weight of different indicators in sustainable factories, a multi-layer Triangular Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (TFAHP) approach was developed, and the application of the method was described and verified. The defined layers are six; for each layer, the pairwise comparison matrix was developed, and the total aggregated score concerning the sustainability goal for each alternative was calculated that shows the Relative Importance Coefficient (RIC). The method is formulated in a way that allows adding the new indicators in all layers as the verification shows, and thus, there are no limits for using any green rating systems. Therefore, the presented approach by TFAHP would provide an additional tool toward the sustainable development of factories.