Damjan Krajnc

Sustainability performance evaluation in industry by composite sustainability index

The growing importance of sustainable development as a policy objective has initiated a debate about those suitable frameworks and tools useful for policy makers when making a sustainable decision. Composite indicators (CIs) aggregate multidimensional issues into one index, thus providing comprehensive information. However, it is frequently argued that CIs are too subjective, as their results undesirably depend on the normalization method, a specific weighting scheme, and the aggregation method of sub-indicators. This article applies different combinations of normalization, weighting, and aggregation methods for the assessment of an industrial case study, with the aim of determining the best scheme for constructing CIs. The applied methodology gradually aggregates sustainable development indicators into sustainability sub-indices and, finally, to a composite sustainability index. The normalization methods included in this analysis are: minimum–maximum, distance to a reference, and the percentages of annual differences over consecutive years. Equal weightings, the ‘benefit of the doubt’ approach, and budget allocation process were used for determining the weights of individual indicators and sustainability sub-indices. The linear, geometric, and non-compensatory multi-criteria approaches (NCMCs) were used as aggregation methods. The NCMC is modified to fit the two-level aggregation, then to sub-indices, and finally to a composite sustainable index. Also, a penalty criterion is introduced into the evaluation process with the aim of motivating the company to move towards sustainable development. The results are analyzed by variance-based sensitivity analysis. According to the results the recommended scheme for CIs’ construction is: distance to a reference–benefit of the doubt–linear aggregation.

An integrated sustainability performance assessment and benchmarking of breweries

Breweries are responding to some sustainability challenges but many of them find sustainability assessment and reporting to be very complex, difficult, and time-consuming tasks. Despite several existing frameworks for the sustainability assessment of companies, none of them specifically addresses breweries. They do not provide them with a transparent, comprehensive, and integrated approach to sustainability assessment, adjusted to the particular circumstances of traditional beer production. In view of these requirements by the brewing industry, this article aims to support breweries in sustainability assessment activities by proposing a methodology for integrated performance assessment. This methodology proposes environmental, societal, economic, and integrated indicators reflecting the characteristics of the brewing industry, compatible with those general indicators proposed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Although it is important to assess sustainability using several indicators, it may sometimes be difficult to make decisions based on a wide number of performance measurements. Thus, the proposed methodology gradually aggregates sustainable development indicators into sustainability sub-indices and, finally, to a composite sustainability index that tracks integrated information on the economic, environmental, and societal performances of a brewery over time. They can be used both internally, for the identification of “hot spots” and externally, for sustainability reporting and stakeholder engagement. Since breweries strive to outperform their competitors, the proposed methodology enables the benchmarking of a brewery against best performance practices, as a catalyst for improvement and innovation, by providing benchmark values for each indicator. The case study presented in this article illustrates how the proposed methodology could be easily applied in practice, and stimulates breweries to test their effectiveness themselves.

Measuring Sustainability — Index of Balanced Sustainable Development

The need for aggregated sustainability information has become a concrete goal of nations committed to contributing to sustainable development and to the establishment of an integrated economic, environmental and social information system for the sustainability assessments.

Fuzzy logic model for the performance benchmarking of sugar plants by considering best available techniques

Abstract The paper deals with the problem of performance benchmarking of industrial plants by considering Best Available Techniques (BAT), as determined by the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive. A Fuzzy Logic Model, based on fuzzy set theory, was constructed for this purpose, in order to compare the performance of plants within a sectors best standards, as expressed in the Reference Document on BAT. The effectiveness of the model was tested in the case study, in which three sugar plants were benchmarked against the BAT.

Development of Strategic Scenarios and Optimal Structures for Sustainable Production of Biofuels in Slovenia

The introduction of biofuels in Slovenia is lagging behind the reference values in EU Directive on the promotion of biofuels and other renewable fuels for transport. In order to define the real possibility of achieving political objectives, a survey for Slovenia was implemented, in order to prepare development scenarios for the achievement of the agricultural, industrial and commercial potential of biofuels production in Slovenia. This contribution presents analysis of production processes and technologies of biofuel production. Mathematical model for selection of optimal biofuel production technology depending on raw material availability and economic criteria is briefly presented. Partial results related to the transformation of the closed sugar factory as one of the suitable biofuel production locations into bioethanol plant are also presented.

Integrated process synthesis of large-scale chemical processes

Abstract The paper presents the combined conceptual-rigorous approach to the problem of energy integrated process synthesis of large-scale chemical processes. The process design is composed of three main steps, i.e. simulation step, conceptual design step (extended Pinch design method, determination of promising modifications, their assessment, selection of the most promising modification) and rigorous design step (structural and parameter optimization). The proposed method was tested using a case study of a simplified ammonia production where the marginal cost decrease of 1,2 % has been achieved compared to the base process design.