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Becoming Carbon Neutral in Costa Rica to Be More Sustainable: An AHP Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Francisco J. André

    (Department of Economic Analysis & ICEI, Complutense University of Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

  • Jorge A. Valenciano-Salazar

    (School of Economics, National University of Costa Rica, Heredia 86-3000, Costa Rica
    Faculty of Economics and Business, Complutense University of Madrid, 28223 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

We propose addressing an organization’s adoption of an environmental certification as a multicriteria problem considering environmental sustainability as well as economic and strategic aspects. Our methodological approach uses the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which we use in an empirical application to analyze the adoption decision of several Costa Rican firms and institutions. Firstly, we select a set of economic, strategic, and environmental criteria that seem relevant for the organization’s direction. We select these criteria according to our literature review and a series of face-to-face interviews with scholars and companies’ managers. As an environmental certification, we focus on Carbon Neutral (CN), which is a domestic certification aimed at reducing or offsetting carbon emissions. For the sake of comparison, we also consider ISO 14001, which is a well-known international standard aimed at compliance with environmental norms. We conduct the AHP analysis using the answers given by 24 companies and institutions, which in aggregate terms, give CN a higher score than ISO 14001. This result is mainly due to the fact that CN ranks above ISO 14001 when attending to environmental sustainability, although ISO 14001 tends to be preferred in economic and strategic terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Francisco J. André & Jorge A. Valenciano-Salazar, 2020. "Becoming Carbon Neutral in Costa Rica to Be More Sustainable: An AHP Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:737-:d:310929
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jorge A. Valenciano-Salazar & Francisco J. André & Mario Soliño, 2021. "Paying for Sustainable Coffee in a Developing Country: Consumers’ Profile in Costa Rica," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Luis Diaz-Balteiro & Jacinto González-Pachón & Carlos Romero, 2020. "Sustainability as a Multi-Criteria Concept: New Developments and Applications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-5, September.

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