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Assessment of environmental and social sustainability performance of the freight transportation industry: An index-based approach

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  • Kumar, Aalok
  • Anbanandam, Ramesh

Abstract

The freight transportation activities having an impact on the freight logistics process. The environmental and social sustainability-related processes are poorly managed compared to the economic process. The quality of environmental and social sustainability (EnSoS) practices ought to be enhanced by measuring current sustainability practices, and at the same time, obstacles to sustainability have to be identified. Some of the previous work try to develop a sustainability framework, but less attention is paid to develop the EnSoS assessment framework for the freight transport industry. To bridge this research gap, this study develops an EnSoS framework based on an integrated multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method, i.e., fuzzy best-worst method (FBWM) and fuzzy logic approach. The proposed framework evaluates the current sustainability performance with an index and highlights the obstacles to the sustainable freight transportation system. The proposed framework presents two sustainability enablers, nine dimensions, and sixty-three sustainability attributes, including ten new attributes. The FBWM method is used to compute the fuzzy importance weight of attributes, whereas the fuzzy logic is used to assess the performance of each attribute. The proposed framework is validated with the case of the Indian freight industry. The fuzzy transportation EnSoS index (FTEnSoSI) is computed as (3.511, 6.366, 8.418), and close to ‘very environmental and social sustainable (VESS)’ label. The fuzzy performance importance index (FPII) is computed to assess the performance of each attribute. Based on FPII value, thirty attributes are identified as obstacles to transport sustainability. The result analysis presented proposed policy measures for improving EnSoS obstacles.

Suggested Citation

  • Kumar, Aalok & Anbanandam, Ramesh, 2022. "Assessment of environmental and social sustainability performance of the freight transportation industry: An index-based approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 43-60.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:trapol:v:124:y:2022:i:c:p:43-60
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.01.006
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    2. Rodrigo Rodrigues de Freitas & Joyce Azevedo Caetano & Cintia Machado de Oliveira & Felipe do Carmo Amorim & Marcio Antelio Neves da Silva, 2022. "Transport Sustainability Index: An Application Multicriteria Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Erkan Bayraktar & Enes Eryarsoy & Fuat Kosanoglu & Mehmet Fatih Acar & Selim Zaim, 2024. "Unveiling the Drivers of Global Logistics Efficiency: Insights from Cross-Country Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-20, March.
    4. Muhammad Kashif & Chen Pinglu & Saif Ullah & Mubasher Zaman, 2024. "Evaluating the influence of financial technology (FinTech) on sustainable finance: a comprehensive global analysis," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 38(1), pages 123-155, March.
    5. Ting Ding & Wenzhong Zhu & Ming Zhao, 2022. "Does Cross-Border Logistics Performance Contribute to Export Competitiveness? Evidence from China Based on the Iceberg Transport Cost Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Tumo Paulus Kele & Mokheseng Makhetha, 2022. "Evaluation of the Effectiveness of and the Extent to Which Large and Medium Logistics Organisations Report on Social Sustainability—The Case of South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-26, November.

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