IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i21p12121-d670992.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An AHP-Based Procedure for Model Selection for Eco-Efficiency Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Maria Julia Xavier Belem

    (Production Engineering Graduate Program, Methodist University of Piracicaba, Piracicaba 13400-390, Brazil)

  • Milton Vieira Junior

    (Production Engineering Graduate Program, Methodist University of Piracicaba, Piracicaba 13400-390, Brazil)

  • Giovanni Mummolo

    (Ionian Department in Juridical and Economic Systems of the Mediterranean: Society, Environment, Cultures, University of Bari, 74100 Taranto, Italy)

  • Francesco Facchini

    (Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy)

Abstract

Modelling eco-efficiency is becoming a wide field of research shown by a large body of scientific literature on the subjects concerned. This paper, after performing a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify existing models for process eco-efficiency assessments, provides a methodology, based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, for choosing the eco-efficiency assessment model to be used for a given application (process, product, or service). For the SLR, papers from the databases Scopus, Web of Science and Science Direct were used. Forty articles were considered for this study, using as the main selection criterion articles that present an eco-efficiency assessment model, since the purpose was to survey the types of existing models that are used to assess processes, products or services for eco-efficiency. With the systematic review carried out, it was possible to identify the types of models that exist and how they are used in different sectors, always aiming to identify if what was analyzed is eco-efficient and what points need to be improved. The proposed AHP-based methodology was applied to a numerical model to outline how to apply the methodology. The approach was easy to use and effective in identifying the proper eco-efficiency model.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Julia Xavier Belem & Milton Vieira Junior & Giovanni Mummolo & Francesco Facchini, 2021. "An AHP-Based Procedure for Model Selection for Eco-Efficiency Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-21, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12121-:d:670992
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12121/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/12121/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kurttila, Mikko & Pesonen, Mauno & Kangas, Jyrki & Kajanus, Miika, 2000. "Utilizing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) in SWOT analysis -- a hybrid method and its application to a forest-certification case," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 41-52, May.
    2. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    3. Kiyotaka Masuda, 2016. "Optimization Model for Mitigating Global Warming at the Farm Scale: An Application to Japanese Rice Farms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(7), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Tianqun Xu & Ping Gao & Qian Yu & Debin Fang, 2017. "An Improved Eco-Efficiency Analysis Framework Based on Slacks-Based Measure Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-21, June.
    5. Samira Vakilipour & Abolghasem Sadeghi-Niaraki & Mostafa Ghodousi & Soo-Mi Choi, 2021. "Comparison between Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methods and Evaluating the Quality of Life at Different Spatial Levels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-36, April.
    6. Byomkesh Talukder & Alison Blay-Palmer & Keith W. Hipel & Gary W. VanLoon, 2017. "Elimination Method of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA): A Simple Methodological Approach for Assessing Agricultural Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-17, February.
    7. Timo Kuosmanen & Mika Kortelainen, 2005. "Measuring Eco‐efficiency of Production with Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(4), pages 59-72, October.
    8. Ferrari, Simone & Zagarella, Federica & Caputo, Paola & Bonomolo, Marina, 2019. "Assessment of tools for urban energy planning," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 544-551.
    9. Yasushi Kondo & Shinichiro Nakamura, 2005. "Waste input-output linear programming model with its application to eco-efficiency analysis," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 393-408.
    10. Jiliang Zheng & Xiaoting Peng, 2019. "Does an Ecological Industry Chain Improve the Eco-Efficiency of an Industrial Cluster? Based on Empirical Study of an Energy-Intensive Industrial Cluster in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-18, March.
    11. Wang, Jiang-Jiang & Jing, You-Yin & Zhang, Chun-Fa & Zhao, Jun-Hong, 2009. "Review on multi-criteria decision analysis aid in sustainable energy decision-making," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2263-2278, December.
    12. Taehyoung Kim & Sungho Tae & Chang U. Chae & Kanghee Lee, 2016. "Proposal for the Evaluation of Eco-Efficient Concrete," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(8), pages 1-19, July.
    13. Zhang, Bing & Bi, Jun & Fan, Ziying & Yuan, Zengwei & Ge, Junjie, 2008. "Eco-efficiency analysis of industrial system in China: A data envelopment analysis approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1-2), pages 306-316, December.
    14. Xiancun Hu & Chunlu Liu, 2017. "Slacks-based data envelopment analysis for eco-efficiency assessment in the Australian construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(11-12), pages 693-706, December.
    15. Yuyu Liu & Caizhi Sun & Shiguo Xu, 2013. "Eco-Efficiency Assessment of Water Systems in China," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 27(14), pages 4927-4939, November.
    16. Serkan Gumus & Gokhan Egilmez & Murat Kucukvar & Yong Shin Park, 2016. "Integrating expert weighting and multi-criteria decision making into eco-efficiency analysis: the case of US manufacturing," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 67(4), pages 616-628, April.
    17. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    18. Neus Sanjuan & Javier Ribal & Gabriela Clemente & Ma Loreto Fenollosa, 2011. "Measuring and Improving Eco‐efficiency Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 15(4), pages 614-628, August.
    19. Thomas L. Saaty & Luis G. Vargas, 2012. "Models, Methods, Concepts & Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, edition 2, number 978-1-4614-3597-6, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tássia Faria de Assis & Victor Hugo Souza de Abreu & Mariane Gonzalez da Costa & Marcio de Almeida D’Agosto, 2022. "Methodology for Prioritizing Best Practices Applied to the Sustainable Last Mile—The Case of a Brazilian Parcel Delivery Service Company," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Trinks, Arjan & Mulder, Machiel & Scholtens, Bert, 2020. "An Efficiency Perspective on Carbon Emissions and Financial Performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    2. Lucio Cecchini & Francesco Romagnoli & Massimo Chiorri & Biancamaria Torquati, 2023. "Eco-Efficiency and Its Determinants: The Case of the Italian Beef Cattle Sector," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Joanna Domagała, 2021. "Economic and Environmental Aspects of Agriculture in the EU Countries," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-23, November.
    4. Puertas, Rosa & Guaita-Martinez, José M. & Carracedo, Patricia & Ribeiro-Soriano, Domingo, 2022. "Analysis of European environmental policies: Improving decision making through eco-efficiency," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    5. Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J., 2015. "Assessing environmental performance trends in the transport industry: Eco-innovation or catching-up?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 570-580.
    6. Yongyoon Suh & Hyeonju Seol & Hyerim Bae & Yongtae Park, 2014. "Eco-efficiency Based on Social Performance and its Relationship with Financial Performance," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 18(6), pages 909-919, December.
    7. OA Carboni & P. Russu, 2014. "Measuring Environmental and Economic Efficiency in Italy: an Application of the Malmquist-DEA and Grey Forecasting Model," Working Paper CRENoS 201401, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    8. Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J., 2017. "Assessing environmental performance in the European Union: Eco-innovation versus catching-up," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 240-252.
    9. Yang Li & An-Chi Liu & Shu-Mei Wang & Yiting Zhan & Jingran Chen & Hsiao-Fen Hsiao, 2022. "A Study of Total-Factor Energy Efficiency for Regional Sustainable Development in China: An Application of Bootstrapped DEA and Clustering Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, April.
    10. Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo & Juana Castillo & Mercedes Beltrán-Esteve, 2013. "A dynamic approach to measuring ecological-economic performance with directional distance functions: greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union," Working Papers 1304, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    11. Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes & Gómez-Limón, José A., 2012. "Assessing eco-efficiency with directional distance functions," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 220(3), pages 798-809.
    12. Zheng, Saina & Lam, Chor-Man & Hsu, Shu-Chien & Ren, Jingzheng, 2018. "Evaluating efficiency of energy conservation measures in energy service companies in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 580-591.
    13. Zon-Yau Lee & Mei-Tai Chu & Yu-Ting Wang & Kuan-Ju Chen, 2020. "Industry Performance Appraisal Using Improved MCDM for Next Generation of Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-18, June.
    14. Picazo-Tadeo, Andrés J. & Castillo-Giménez, Juana & Beltrán-Esteve, Mercedes, 2014. "An intertemporal approach to measuring environmental performance with directional distance functions: Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 173-182.
    15. Jesús Peiró-Palomino & Andrés J. Picazo-Tadeo, 2019. "Is Social Capital Green? Cultural Features and Environmental Performance in the European Union," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(3), pages 795-822, March.
    16. Soo-Hyun Lee & Su-Yol Lee, 2018. "An Analysis of the Effects of Climate Change Policy, Stakeholder Pressure, and Corporate Carbon Management on Carbon Efficiency on the Korean Petrochemical Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, November.
    17. Yonglin Li & Zhili Zuo & Deyi Xu & Yi Wei, 2021. "Mining Eco-Efficiency Measurement and Driving Factors Identification Based on Meta-US-SBM in Guangxi Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-22, May.
    18. Junlong Li & Chuangneng Cai & Feng Zhang, 2020. "Assessment of Ecological Efficiency and Environmental Sustainability of the Minjiang-Source in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-15, June.
    19. Tianqun Xu & Ping Gao & Qian Yu & Debin Fang, 2017. "An Improved Eco-Efficiency Analysis Framework Based on Slacks-Based Measure Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-21, June.
    20. Kuosmanen, Timo & Kortelainen, Mika, 2007. "Valuing environmental factors in cost-benefit analysis using data envelopment analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 56-65, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:12121-:d:670992. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.