Exploring Decision Tradeoffs in Sustainable Design

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Mattson ◽  
Vicky Lofthouse ◽  
Tracy Bhamra
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Multiobjective Optimization ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Optimization Techniques ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Hypodermic Needle ◽  
Sustainable Engineering

Sustainable design involves three essential areas: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. For even the simplest of products, the complexities of these three areas and their tradeoffs cause decision-making transparency to be lost in most practical situations. The existing field of multiobjective optimization offers a natural framework to explore the tradeoffs in the sustainability space (defined by economic, environmental, and social sustainability issues), thus offering both the designer and the decision makers a means of understanding the sustainability tradeoffs. To facilitate this, a decision making approach that capitalizes on the principles and power of multiobjective optimization is presented. This paper concludes that sustainable development can indeed benefit from tradeoff characterization using multiobjective optimization techniques — even when using only basic models of sustainability. Interestingly, the unique characteristics of the three essential sustainable development areas lead to an alternative view of some traditional multiobjective optimization concepts, such as weak Pareto optimality. The sustainable engineering design of a hypodermic needle is presented as a simple hypothetical example for method demonstration and discussion.

scholarly journals Using a Product’s Sustainability Space as a Design Exploration Tool

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Mattson ◽  
Andrew T. Pack ◽  
Vicky Lofthouse ◽  
Tracy Bhamra
Keyword(s):  
Multiobjective Optimization ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Optimization Techniques ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Water Wells ◽  
Sustainable Product Development ◽  
Exploration Tool ◽  
Sustainable Product

Sustainable design is often practiced and assessed through the consideration of three essential areas: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability, and social sustainability. For even the simplest of products, the complexities of these three areas and their tradeoffs cause decision-making transparency to be lost in most practical situations. The existing field of multiobjective optimization offers a natural framework to define and explore a given design space. In this paper, a method for defining a product’s sustainability space (defined by economic, environmental, and social sustainability objectives) is outlined and used to explore the tradeoffs within the space, thus offering both the design team and the decision makers a means of better understanding the sustainability tradeoffs. This paper concludes that sustainable product development can indeed benefit from tradeoff characterization using multiobjective optimization techniques – even when using only basic models of sustainability. Interestingly, the unique characteristics of the three essential sustainable development areas lead to an alternative view of some traditional multiobjective optimization concepts, such as weak-Pareto optimality. The sustainable redesign of a machine to drill boreholes for water wells is presented as a practical example for method demonstration and discussion.

scholarly journals Dissemination of Environmental Information and its Effects on Stakeholders’ Decision-Making: A Comparative Study between Swedish and Polish Municipalities

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-47
Author(s):  
Anna Cregård ◽  
Iwona Sobis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Environmental Information ◽  
Development Economic ◽  
Agenda 21 ◽  
Positive Effects

Abstract According to Action Agenda 21, which was adopted at the Rio Conference in 1992, sustainable development is a major objective for local and global development. Economic growth, good living conditions, and protection of the earth’s natural environment are important to all people in the world. This article focuses on one aspect of sustainable development, i.e. on environmental sustainability. Research shows that local government can take a leading position in protecting the natural environment and disseminating information on it among stakeholders. However, our knowledge about the dissemination of environmental information practices among stakeholders is limited. The purpose of this research is to fill a gap in current knowledge, to describe and compare the practical work with dissemination of such information among stakeholders in Swedish and Polish municipalities. The questions to be answered are: What environmental information is collected and produced by the local government ? At what stakeholders is such information targeted ? and What effects does it have on decision-making by stakeholders in the investigated municipalities ? The study is based on state regulations, the homepages of municipal offices, and policy documents, official reports, and semi-structured interviews with key managers responsible for the protection of the natural environment in the studied municipalities. Data were collected from late 2015 to early 2017. This research indicates that dissemination of environmental information has a positive effect on the decision-making of internal stakeholders. In both countries, the municipal authorities follow the EU recommendations, resulting in innovative work and growing environmental awareness among the municipal authorities, the residents, and other stakeholders. Improvement of the natural environment is perceived as “a must” for the future. Nonetheless, especially larger municipalities face challenges because the production and dissemination of environmental information is time-consuming. In the long run, however, surprisingly positive effects on the local protection of the natural environment appear.

scholarly journals Learning Sustainable Design through Service

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karim Al-Khafaji ◽  
Margaret Catherine Morse
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Learning To Teach ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Academic Setting

Environmental sustainability and sustainable development principles are vital topics that engineering education has largely failed to address. Service-learning, which integrates social service into an academic setting, is an emerging tool that can be leveraged to teach sustainable design to future engineers. We present a model of using service-learning to teach sustainable design based on the experiences of the Stanford chapter of Engineers for a Sustainable World. The model involves the identification of projects and partner organizations, a student led, project-based design course, and internships coordinated with partner organizations. The model has been very successful, although limitations and challenges exist. These are discussed along with future directions for expanding the model.

scholarly journals Towards Creating a Socially Sustainable Society amid COVID- 19 Pandemic: A Gandhian Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neha Mishra ◽  
◽  
Anindya J Mishra ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Development Discourse ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Moral Principles ◽  
The Individual

The current coronavirus pandemic has emerged as a threat to the entire humanity. It has affected society at large and has created a lot of chaos and uncertainty in the world. This has created the need to restore and establish social sustainability in the society. Social sustainability is viewed as a process for creating successful places that promote people’s well-being by understanding people’s needs and wants. Here, Gandhi’s comprehensive vision for society can be related to the sustainable development approach and the social dynamics prevailing in the society amid the pandemic. As the three pillars of sustainable development- environmental, economic, and social- are interlinked, Gandhi’s ideas and principles of value-based approach and ethical living hold good in sustainable development discourse. However, though Gandhian principles and concepts have been often viewed in environmental sustainability, it is least analyzed and understood in terms of social sustainability. Therefore, the paper tries to fill this gap by focusing on building a social aspect of sustainability amid the pandemic through Gandhian perspective. This paper analyses social sustainability in terms of (a) social equity, (b) social well-being, and (c) participation by all. In this context, his idea of “Sarvodaya” is significant as it deals with social welfare, which holds importance in current pandemic days. Apart from “Sarvodaya,” Gandhi also developed an integrated view of the individual, society, and state by focusing on social harmony based upon the moral principles- love, truth, justice, and non-violence, which hold importance even today.

Organizational creativity and sustainability-oriented innovation as drivers of sustainable development: overcoming firms' economic, environmental and social sustainability challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime E. Souto
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Statistical Technique ◽  
Mediation Effect ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Organizational Creativity ◽  
Sustainability Challenges

PurposeSustainable development is key to firms' competitiveness, survival, growth and profitability, although sustainability emerges as a great challenge. The aim of this study is to analyze the links between organizational creativity (which integrates sustainability orientation), sustainability-oriented innovation and the multidimensionality of firms' sustainability performance.Design/methodology/approachA total of 417 valid responses from manufacturing SMEs were collected through a questionnaire. PLS-SEM is the statistical technique used in the hypothesis testing.Findings Organizational creativity (which integrates sustainability orientation) and sustainability-oriented innovation are positively associated with economic sustainability performance, environmental sustainability performance and social sustainability performance; sustainability-oriented innovation has a partial mediation effect on the relationship between organizational creativity and economic, environmental, and social sustainability performance; and organizational creativity (which integrates sustainability orientation) has a positive effect on sustainability-oriented innovation.Originality/valueSustainability orientation is integrated into organizational creativity without limiting it, sustainability-oriented innovation encompasses innovation and sustainability in all its breadth without forgetting the innovation process openness, and firm's sustainability performance has a multidimensional approach. Such innovation and creativity contribute – in an interconnected way – to sustainable development, as well as overcoming sustainability challenges and firms' barriers to sustainability. Likewise, the aforementioned creativity must be implemented throughout the company, even beyond its contribution to the innovation process. Thus, the implementation of new ideas, thoughts, perspectives, views, and mental models – fruit of the described creative process – will generate new models and paths in which firms' profitability, growth and survival are related with overcoming environmental and social problems.

scholarly journals Linking Economic Complexity, Diversification, and Industrial Policy with Sustainable Development: A Structured Literature Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1265
Author(s):  
Diogo Ferraz ◽  
Fernanda P. S. Falguera ◽  
Enzo B. Mariano ◽  
Dominik Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Industrial Policy ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Livelihood Diversification ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
Economic Diversification ◽  
Economic Complexity

Research on economic diversification and complexity has made significant advances in understanding economic development processes, but has only recently explored environmental and social sustainability considerations. In this article we evaluate the current state of this emerging literature and reveal 13 research gaps. A total of 35 different keywords and methods from structured literature reviews and network science helped to identify 374 scientific articles between 1988 and 2020 and revealed a fragmented research landscape around three larger network communities: (1) industrial policies, climate change, and green growth; (2) economic complexity and its association with inequality and environmental sustainability; and (3) economic diversification, including studies on livelihood diversification in poor areas. Economic complexity research applies new empirical methods and considers both social and environmental sustainability, but seldom scrutinizes theory and policy. Industrial policy research focuses on green growth policies but tends to omit social sustainability issues and advanced empirical methods. Research on economic diversification in poor regions provides insights on the livelihood diversification of farmers, but is disconnected from the economic complexity and industrial policy research. This review helps to summarize the main contributions and shows pathways for potential mutual learning between these communities for the sake of sustainable development.

scholarly journals Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Techniques for Improvement Sustainability Engineering Processes

Symmetry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 986 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas ◽  
Dragan Pamučar ◽  
Željko Stević ◽  
Abbas Mardani
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Multi Criteria Decision Making ◽  
Uncertain Environments ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Sustainable Engineering ◽  
Multi Criteria Evaluation ◽  
Success Indicators

The success of any activity and process depends fundamentally on the possibility of balancing (symmetry) needs and their satisfaction. That is, the ability to properly define a set of success indicators. The application of the developed new multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods can be eliminated or decreased by decision-makers’ subjectivity, which leads to consistency or symmetry in the weight values of the criteria. In this Special Issue, 40 research papers and one review study co-authored by 137 researchers from 23 different countries explore aspects of multi-criteria modeling and optimization in crisp or uncertain environments. The papers proposing new approaches and elaborate case studies in the following areas of applications: MCDM optimization in sustainable engineering, environmental sustainability in engineering processes, sustainable multi-criteria production and logistics processes planning, integrated approach for modeling processes in engineering, new trends in the multi-criteria evaluation of sustainable processes, multi-criteria decision-making in strategic management based on sustainable criteria.

scholarly journals A Rational Decision-Making Process with Public Engagement for Designing Public Transport Services: A Real Case Application in Italy

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (16) ◽  
pp. 6303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Cartenì ◽  
Luca D’Acierno ◽  
Mariano Gallo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Rational Decision ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rational Decision Making ◽  
Transport Services ◽  
Public Transport Services

The sustainable design of public transport services is a crucial issue that may affect the economy of local areas and the social inclusion of their inhabitants. Indeed, transport accessibility of households, businesses, and retail activities is one of the main drivers that influence location choices and sustainable development and where the public transport services may play a key (positive) role. Furthermore, the economic crisis of the 2009 and the current ones caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has further limited the funds available for public services, including the transport sector. In this critical context, sound design of public transport services assumes great importance, especially in light of financial constraints. Starting from these considerations, the aim of this paper has been to propose an innovative methodology for designing public transport services based on a rational decision-making process with stakeholder engagement, aiming to perform a sustainable development perspective. The proposed methodology combines technical aspects, social and political issues, equity perspectives, and it is aimed in obtaining a design solution that can be accepted by the whole community. The proposed theoretical design methodology has also been applied to a case study in order to verify its applicability to a real context, consisting of the design of the public transport plan of the province of Foggia in southern Italy. Applications results show that the sustainable design scenario is not only the best ones from a technical point of view, but also participated, equitable, and approved by both policymakers and stakeholders.

scholarly journals Assessment of City Sustainability Using MCDM with Interdependent Criteria Weight

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1632 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pingtao Yi ◽  
Weiwei Li ◽  
Danning Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
The Other ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Weighted Averaging ◽  
Economic Sustainability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Iowa Operator ◽  
Assessment Results

The Capital Economic Circle is an important planning project in China. Sustainability is a key factor for the long-term development of the Capital Economic Circle. In this paper, we investigated the sustainability of 13 cities in the Capital Economic Circle using three dimensions: economy, society, and environment. The induced ordered weighted averaging (IOWA) operator was used for the aggregation of criteria data. The order-inducing variable in the IOWA operator was measure by the correlation degree of a criterion and all the other criteria. Criteria with larger order-inducing values were given more weight as they provided more support for the development of other criteria. The assessment results indicate that the sustainable development of most of the cities, except for Beijing and Tianjin, is poor, with performance values below 0.5. By comparing the development using three dimensions, it was found that poor performances of economic sustainability were the main reason for this. Additionally, all of the cities showed a sound momentum of sustainable growth even though the sustainable levels of most of the cities were not high. In terms of sustainable development across the three dimensions, the cities had the highest levels of environmental sustainability. The social sustainability of the cities, except for Beijing and Tianjin, was better than their economic sustainability. However, more than half of the cities (accounting for 53.8%) showed a decline in social sustainability, especially for Zhangjiakou, which had the highest degree of decline of 4.00%. Some suggestions have been provided on the basis of the main assessment results. For example, Beijing should invest more in education as well as further easing transportation pressure. There is room for further improvement of the social and environmental sustainability of Tianjin. The other cities should focus on developing economic sustainability as well as preventing the decline of social sustainability.

scholarly journals Perceived Development of Sustainable Agriculture

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maja Klun ◽  
Renata Slabe Erker
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Sustainable Agriculture ◽  
Agricultural Policy ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
General Public ◽  
Social Sustainability ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Measures

Within the concept of sustainable agriculture, the two fields of administration of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment come face to face, resulting in a number of social implications. In order to provide assistance in the shaping, execution and assessment of sustainable activities, in this article we analyse the attitude of the public and farmers towards sustainable development in agriculture. The results reveal that in Slovenia, sustainable agriculture has support not only on the level of declarations, but also among the public. Statistically significant differences between the general public and farmers can be noted in the groups’ respective understandings of the sustainable advancement of agriculture in the field of the environment. In parallel to this, a rift can be noted between support for sustainable agriculture in principle and in practice. For this reason, it would be wise to consider shifting the focus of agricultural policy measures from environmental sustainability to social sustainability and the survival of farmers, along with an emphasis on positive environmental information regarding Slovenian farmers.

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