IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i2p825-d481156.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part I—A Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies

Author

Listed:
  • Jonas Ammenberg

    (Environmental Technology and Management and Biogas Research Center (BRC), Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden)

  • Sofia Dahlgren

    (Environmental Technology and Management and Biogas Research Center (BRC), Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden)

Abstract

This article departs from the perspective of Swedish regional transport authorities and focuses on the public procurement of bus transports. Many of these public organizations on the county level have the ambition to contribute to a transition involving the continued marginalization of fossil fuels and improved sustainability performance. However, there are several renewable bus technologies to choose between and it can be difficult to know what alternative (or combination) is preferable. Prior research and the authors’ experiences indicate a need for improved knowledge and supportive methods on how sustainability assessments can support public procurement processes. The purpose of this article is to develop a multi-criteria assessment (MCA) method to support assessments of public bus technologies’ sustainability. The method, which was established in an iterative and participatory process, consists of four key areas and 12 indicators. The article introduces the problem context and reviews selected prior research of relevance dealing with green or sustainable public procurement and sustainability assessments. Further on, the process and MCA method are presented and discussed based on advice for effective and efficient sustainability assessments. In the companion article (Part II), the MCA method is applied to assess several bus technologies involving biodiesel, biomethane, diesel, electricity, ethanol and natural gas.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonas Ammenberg & Sofia Dahlgren, 2021. "Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part I—A Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-25, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:2:p:825-:d:481156
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/825/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/2/825/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nikolaos Thomopoulos & Susan Grant-Muller, 2013. "Incorporating equity as part of the wider impacts in transport infrastructure assessment: an application of the SUMINI approach," Transportation, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 315-345, February.
    2. Winzer, Christian, 2012. "Conceptualizing energy security," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 36-48.
    3. Månsson, André & Johansson, Bengt & Nilsson, Lars J., 2014. "Assessing energy security: An overview of commonly used methodologies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Cherp, Aleh & Jewell, Jessica, 2014. "The concept of energy security: Beyond the four As," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 415-421.
    5. Barfod, Michael Bruhn & Salling, Kim Bang, 2015. "A new composite decision support framework for strategic and sustainable transport appraisals," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-15.
    6. Wedley, William C., 1990. "Combining qualitative and quantitative factors--an analytic hierarchy approach," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 57-64.
    7. Behling, Noriko & Williams, Mark C. & Behling, Thomas G. & Managi, Shunsuke, 2019. "Aftermath of Fukushima: Avoiding another major nuclear disaster," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 411-420.
    8. Ness, Barry & Urbel-Piirsalu, Evelin & Anderberg, Stefan & Olsson, Lennart, 2007. "Categorising tools for sustainability assessment," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(3), pages 498-508, January.
    9. Buchholz, Thomas & Rametsteiner, Ewald & Volk, Timothy A. & Luzadis, Valerie A., 2009. "Multi Criteria Analysis for bioenergy systems assessments," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 484-495, February.
    10. T. J. Foxon & G. Mcilkenny & D. Gilmour & C. Oltean-Dumbrava & N. Souter & R. Ashley & D. Butler & P. Pearson & P. Jowitt & J. Moir, 2002. "Sustainability Criteria for Decision Support in the UK Water Industry," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 285-301.
    11. Axel Lindfors & Roozbeh Feiz & Mats Eklund & Jonas Ammenberg, 2019. "Assessing the Potential, Performance and Feasibility of Urban Solutions: Methodological Considerations and Learnings from Biogas Solutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-20, July.
    12. Xylia, Maria & Silveira, Semida, 2017. "On the road to fossil-free public transport: The case of Swedish bus fleets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 397-412.
    13. Tom Waas & Jean Hugé & Thomas Block & Tarah Wright & Francisco Benitez-Capistros & Aviel Verbruggen, 2014. "Sustainability Assessment and Indicators: Tools in a Decision-Making Strategy for Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(9), pages 1-23, August.
    14. Ekener-Petersen, Elisabeth & Höglund, Jonas & Finnveden, Göran, 2014. "Screening potential social impacts of fossil fuels and biofuels for vehicles," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 416-426.
    15. Thomopoulos, Nikolaos & Grant-Muller, Susan, 2013. "Incorporating equity as part of the wider impacts in transport infrastructure assessment: an application of the SUMINI approach," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60073, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Martinez-Alier, Joan & Munda, Giuseppe & O'Neill, John, 1998. "Weak comparability of values as a foundation for ecological economics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 277-286, September.
    17. Joyce Thomson & Tim Jackson, 2007. "Sustainable procurement in practice: Lessons from local government," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 421-444.
    18. P.C. Bueno & J.M. Vassallo & K. Cheung, 2015. "Sustainability Assessment of Transport Infrastructure Projects: A Review of Existing Tools and Methods," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(5), pages 622-649, September.
    19. Tom Waas & Jean Huge & Thomas BLOCK & Tarah Wright & Francisco Javier Benitez Capistros & Aviel Verbruggen, 2014. "Sustainability assessment and indicators: Tools in a decision-making strategy for sustainable development," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/189410, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    20. Jessica Jewell, 2011. "The IEA Model of Short-Term Energy Security (MOSES): Primary Energy Sources and Secondary Fuels," IEA Energy Papers 2011/17, OECD Publishing.
    21. Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung & Lin, Cheng-Wei & Opricovic, Serafim, 2005. "Multi-criteria analysis of alternative-fuel buses for public transportation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1373-1383, July.
    22. Tudela, Alejandro & Akiki, Natalia & Cisternas, Rene, 2006. "Comparing the output of cost benefit and multi-criteria analysis: An application to urban transport investments," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 40(5), pages 414-423, June.
    23. Ananda, Jayanath & Herath, Gamini, 2009. "A critical review of multi-criteria decision making methods with special reference to forest management and planning," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(10), pages 2535-2548, August.
    24. Andersson, Henrik & Swärdh , Jan-Erik & Ögren , Mikael, 2015. "Traffic noise effects of property prices: hedonic estimates based on multiple noise indicators," Working papers in Transport Economics 2015:11, CTS - Centre for Transport Studies Stockholm (KTH and VTI).
    25. Guo, Mingxin & Song, Weiping & Buhain, Jeremy, 2015. "Bioenergy and biofuels: History, status, and perspective," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 712-725.
    26. J. Lelieveld & J. S. Evans & M. Fnais & D. Giannadaki & A. Pozzer, 2015. "The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 367-371, September.
    27. Sehatpour, Mohammad-Hadi & Kazemi, Aliyeh & Sehatpour, Hesam-eddin, 2017. "Evaluation of alternative fuels for light-duty vehicles in Iran using a multi-criteria approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 295-310.
    28. Johansson, Bengt & Jonsson, Daniel K. & Veibäck, Ester & Sonnsjö, Hannes, 2016. "Assessing the capabilites to manage risks in energy systems–analytical perspectives and frameworks with a starting point in Swedish experiences," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(P1), pages 429-435.
    29. Matsumoto, Ken'ichi & Doumpos, Michalis & Andriosopoulos, Kostas, 2018. "Historical energy security performance in EU countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P2), pages 1737-1748.
    30. Barbosa, Samuel Borges & Ferreira, Marcelo Gitirana Gomes & Nickel, Elton Moura & Cruz, Jorge Alcides & Forcellini, Fernando Antônio & Garcia, Jéssica & Guerra, José Baltazar Salgueirinho Osório de An, 2017. "Multi-criteria analysis model to evaluate transport systems: An application in Florianópolis, Brazil," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-13.
    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. Barouch Giechaskiel & Simone Casadei & Tommaso Rossi & Fabrizio Forloni & Andrea Di Domenico, 2021. "Measurements of the Emissions of a “Golden” Vehicle at Seven Laboratories with Portable Emission Measurement Systems (PEMS)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-13, August.
    2. Hanhee Kim & Niklas Hartmann & Maxime Zeller & Renato Luise & Tamer Soylu, 2021. "Comparative TCO Analysis of Battery Electric and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Buses for Public Transport System in Small to Midsize Cities," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-31, July.
    3. Alberto Romero-Ania & Lourdes Rivero Gutiérrez & María Auxiliadora De Vicente Oliva, 2021. "Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis of Sustainable Urban Public Transport Systems," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(16), pages 1-30, August.

    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. Francis Marleau Donais & Irène Abi-Zeid & E. Owen D. Waygood & Roxane Lavoie, 2019. "A review of cost–benefit analysis and multicriteria decision analysis from the perspective of sustainable transport in project evaluation," EURO Journal on Decision Processes, Springer;EURO - The Association of European Operational Research Societies, vol. 7(3), pages 327-358, November.
    2. Nomeda Dobrovolskienė & Rima Tamošiūnienė & Audrius Banaitis & Fernando A. F. Ferreira & Nerija Banaitienė & Kamilė Taujanskaitė & Ieva Meidutė-Kavaliauskienė, 2019. "Developing a composite sustainability index for real estate projects using multiple criteria decision making," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 617-635, September.
    3. Osieczko Kornelia & Polaszczyk Jan, 2018. "Comparison of chosen aspects of Energy Security Index for the natural gas sector in Poland and Ukraine," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 54(3), pages 185-196, September.
    4. Liedtke, Stephan, 2017. "Chinese energy investments in Europe: An analysis of policy drivers and approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 659-669.
    5. Johanna Camargo Pérez & Martha Carrillo & Jairo Montoya-Torres, 2015. "Multi-criteria approaches for urban passenger transport systems: a literature review," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 226(1), pages 69-87, March.
    6. Sergio Fuentes & Roberto Villafafila-Robles & Eduardo Lerner, 2020. "Composed Index for the Evaluation of the Energy Security of Power Systems: Application to the Case of Argentina," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, August.
    7. Jacek Strojny & Anna Krakowiak-Bal & Jarosław Knaga & Piotr Kacorzyk, 2023. "Energy Security: A Conceptual Overview," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-35, June.
    8. Sofia Dahlgren & Jonas Ammenberg, 2021. "Sustainability Assessment of Public Transport, Part II—Applying a Multi-Criteria Assessment Method to Compare Different Bus Technologies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-30, January.
    9. Evgeny Lisin & Wadim Strielkowski & Veronika Chernova & Alena Fomina, 2018. "Assessment of the Territorial Energy Security in the Context of Energy Systems Integration," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-14, November.
    10. Weiwei Li & Pingtao Yi & Danning Zhang, 2018. "Sustainability Evaluation of Cities in Northeastern China Using Dynamic TOPSIS-Entropy Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, December.
    11. Aurelia Rybak & Aleksandra Rybak & Jarosław Joostberens, 2023. "The Impact of Removing Coal from Poland’s Energy Mix on Selected Aspects of the Country’s Energy Security," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, February.
    12. Jean Hugé & Nibedita Mukherjee & Camille Fertel & Jean-Philippe Waaub & Thomas Block & Tom Waas & Nico Koedam & Farid Dahdouh-Guebas, 2015. "Conceptualizing the Effectiveness of Sustainability Assessment in Development Cooperation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-17, May.
    13. Adinda Franky Nelwan & Rinaldy Dalimi & Chairul Hudaya, 2021. "A New Formula to Quantify the National Energy Security of the World s Top Ten Most Populous Nations," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 11(1), pages 394-406.
    14. Zhu, Bo & Deng, Yuanyue & Lin, Renda & Hu, Xin & Chen, Pingshe, 2022. "Energy security: Does systemic risk spillover matter? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    15. Karel Doubravský & Alena Kocmanová & Mirko Dohnal, 2018. "Analysis of Sustainability Decision Trees Generated by Qualitative Models Based on Equationless Heuristics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-18, July.
    16. Wei, Na & Xie, Wen-Jie & Zhou, Wei-Xing, 2022. "Robustness of the international oil trade network under targeted attacks to economies," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    17. Anastasiia Moldavska, 2017. "Defining Organizational Context for Corporate Sustainability Assessment: Cross-Disciplinary Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-25, December.
    18. Tobias Engelmann & Daniel Fischer & Marianne Lörchner & Jaya Bowry & Holger Rohn, 2019. "“Doing” Sustainability Assessment in Different Consumption and Production Contexts—Lessons from Case Study Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-25, December.
    19. Etxano, Iker & Villalba-Eguiluz, Unai, 2021. "Twenty-five years of social multi-criteria evaluation (SMCE) in the search for sustainability: Analysis of case studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    20. Herie Park & Sungwoo Bae, 2021. "Quantitative Assessment of Energy Supply Security: Korea Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-15, February.

    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:2:p:825-:d:481156. 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.