Konstantinos Aravossis

Decision support models for solid waste management: Review and game-theoretic approaches

This paper surveys decision support models that are commonly used in the solid waste management area. Most models are mainly developed within three decision support frameworks, which are the life-cycle assessment, the cost-benefit analysis and the multi-criteria decision-making. These frameworks are reviewed and their strengths and weaknesses as well as their critical issues are analyzed, while their possible combinations and extensions are also discussed. Furthermore, the paper presents how cooperative and non-cooperative game-theoretic approaches can be used for the purpose of modeling and analyzing decision-making in situations with multiple stakeholders. Specifically, since a waste management model is sustainable when considering not only environmental and economic but also social aspects, the waste management bargaining game is introduced as a specific decision support framework in which future models can be developed.

Marginalised social groups in contemporary weee management within social enterprises investments: A study in Greece.

This paper deals with the creation of appropriate conditions aimed at developing social services for reuse and recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), by the inclusion of handicapped and Roma people in the workforce. Application areas for the project are the Hellenic (Greek) regions of Thessaly and North Aegean, where these groups suffer from professional and social exclusion. The efforts to reduce unemployment in the two aforementioned groups, together with the efforts to implement related Greek and European legislation for sustainable WEEE management, are examined here. Furthermore, networking and cooperation at local, regional and central levels between small enterprises, entrepreneurships and local authorities are examined, so that these social enterprises and their corresponding investments may support the development of the Greek alternative WEEE recycling system.

Greece: A Comparative Study of CSR Reports

The last few decades have witnessed an increase in the awareness on the part of corporate entities in Western democracies that they are morally obliged to give something back to the society. To demonstrate that they “care” about people and the environment they operate in, organizations have taken different courses of action. The corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports which are annually published, in addition to the traditional annual financial reports, are considered as one of the vehicles used to demonstrate how caring they have been during the financial period that has just ended and how they intend to continue to be even more proactive in the future. This study examines the adoption of CSR practices and looks at the CSR reports of many companies across different industries in Greece. The CSR disclosures are further classified and the results are analysed and interpreted in order to draw conclusions and to predict the future of CSR in Greece.

Application of risk management techniques for the remediation of an old mining site in Greece

This article summarizes the project and risk management of a remediation/reclamation project in Lavrion, Greece. In Thoricos the disposal of mining and metallurgical wastes in the past resulted in the contamination with heavy metals and acid mine drainage. The objective of this reclamation project was to transform this coastal zone from a contaminated site to an area suitable for recreation purposes. A separate risk assessment study was performed to provide the basis of determining the relevant environmental contamination and to rate the alternative remedial schemes involved. The study used both existing data available from comprehensive studies, as well as newly collected field data. For considering environmental risk, the isolation and minimization of risk option was selected, and a reclamation scheme, based on environmental criteria, was applied which was comprised of in situ neutralization, stabilization and cover of the potentially acid generating wastes and contaminated soils with a low permeability geochemical barrier. Additional measures were specifically applied in the areas where highly sulphidic wastes existed constituting active acid generation sources, which included the encapsulation of wastes in HDPE liners installed on clay layers.

Performance Analysis Of The Greek Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting Companies – Proposal Of An Evaluation Methodology

This paper examines the adoption of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and looks at CSR reports of many companies across different industries in Greece. The CSR disclosures are further classifi ed and the results are analysed and interpreted. A proposed methodological framework is suggested, which can be followed by the companies to implement an effective CSR programme in all the areas of their operation consisting of three distinct stages: Analysis, Execution and Performance Evaluation. The suggested framework permits the development of corporate CSR programmes adapted to the unique characteristics of each sector and company, emphasising different stages according to organisational activities, missions and the resources that can be utilised. The framework includes weighted performance indicators relating to a company’s impact on different areas of activity such as environment, community, human capital, shareholders and marketplace. The application of the proposed methodological framework is demonstrated in two companies, an industrial one and a fi nancial one.

Environmental project evaluation: IRR-based decision support with a Monte Carlo simulation algorithm

One of the most widely used methods for investment assessment is the internal rate of return (IRR) that is based on the discounted cash flow analysis. Furthermore, the quantitative risk analysis technique is commonly used during the projects initial stage, simply by weighting the financial performance with the incurred risks. Herein, we introduce a decision support algorithm for environmental project evaluation and we focus on its application to solid waste management projects. The proposed algorithm includes some basic steps that should be followed by decision-makers, in order to evaluate a projects options. Specifically, different probability distributions are assigned to all variables that influence the options’ IRRs and Monte Carlo simulation is enforced to compute their expected IRR values. The algorithm presented here can be a useful tool to risk-neutral decision-makers, as it helps them to evaluate an environmental projects options and to select the one with the greatest expected profits.

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE OLYMPICS: THE CASE OF ATHENS 2004

The terms of growth and environment are historically proven not to be compatible, in principle, methods and targets. Economic investments are usually accompanied by actions that could not easily be characterized as environmentally friendly, while the strict application of environmental directives often results in halting development. Moreover, the tendency to constant economic growth is a desirable and inherent characteristic of human nature, which is apparently not to be changed in the near future. In this context, the pressing need for a bundle of approaches that could tie the objectives of economic growth and the protection of the environment had led to the field of sustainable development. The compatibility of each investment project with the principles of sustainable development should be therefore a matter of high priority. This text addresses the sustainability and the impact of the Olympic Games that were held in Athens in the summer of 2004. The Olympics comprise the biggest of events and their preparation extends in a scale capable of restructuring various spheres of economic activities. The sustainability issues that arise are therefore of major importance. The paper concerns the impact assessment of Olympic investments, in terms of properly selected and modified sustainable performance indicators focusing mainly on economy and environment. In this context, data and facts concerning the total budget of the Games are presented, while the attempt to monitor the evolution of the Games’ economic context focuses finally on the volume of labor force and unemployment rate. Regarding the environmental sphere, the sustainability of the Games is assessed mainly through the areas of interest of transport networks, traffic and pollution among others. Eventually, the article presents a holistic approach of assessing the sustainable impact of the Olympic Games and its implementation on the Athens 2004 Games.

Feasibility study for an innovative industrial red mud utilisation method

Red mud is a high volume industrial waste, and its management poses a unique challenge. For the utilisation of red mud, an economical, energy saving, environmental friendly and widely applicable method has been found. The proposed novel method is purely chemical, and achieves the recovery of all the oxides contained in red mud totally and transforms them into high value added products. The present work shows that an investment in an industrial plant, treating red mud and turning a toxic industrial waste in commercial products, is safe and viable.

On the Fair Division of Multiple Stochastic Pies to Multiple Agents within the Nash Bargaining Solution

The fair division of a surplus is one of the most widely examined problems. This paper focuses on bargaining problems with fixed disagreement payoffs where risk-neutral agents have reached an agreement that is the Nash-bargaining solution (NBS). We consider a stochastic environment, in which the overall return consists of multiple pies with uncertain sizes and we examine how these pies can be allocated with fairness among agents. Specifically, fairness is based on the Aristotle’s maxim: “equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally, in proportion to the relevant inequality”. In this context, fairness is achieved when all the individual stochastic surplus shares which are allocated to agents are distributed in proportion to the NBS. We introduce a novel algorithm, which can be used to compute the ratio of each pie that should be allocated to each agent, in order to ensure fairness within a symmetric or asymmetric NBS.

ON THE FINANCIAL AND RISK ANALYSIS OF WASTE TREATMENT PROJECTS IN GREECE

Risk assessment is one of the most critical procedures for the evaluation of environmental projects. Over the last decades, there are several methods and techniques developed in the risk assessment literature establishing the quantitative risk analysis of waste treatment projects. Herein, the authors focus on the correlation between the fi nancial sustainability evaluation and the quantitative risk analysis of waste treatment projects, which are implemented with Build-Operate-Transfer contracts in Greece. Particularly, the authors use a formula for the investors profi t rate computation, which corresponds in positive cash fl ows throughout the projects operational phase and ensures the partnerships fi nancial sustainability. Documentation of the specifi c formula is achieved through the quantitative risk analysis of a waste treatment project, where the uncertainty of the projects fi nancial sustainability is analyzed and useful conclusions are discussed. Over the past two decades, public private partnership (PPP) contracts are used by many governments for the purpose of delivering a project or a service that is traditionally provided by the public sector. Generally, these types of contracts include the collaboration between the public and the private sector, while in most cases the private partner is responsible for the project funding and the invested capital is recovered through the operation revenue over the concession period. According to the World Bank Groups database (1), for the period 1990-2009, there are 400 investments with private participation implemented in the waste treatment (WT) fi eld. Since the PPP projects are becoming a popular option for the public services delivery, there are many authors who refer to specifi c large WT projects imple- mented in different countries (2-4), while other researchers focus on the identifi cation and analysis of their key aspects (5). These projects are mainly implemented following a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract, which is the most commonly used contract type in PPPs (6). Generally, BOT contracts can be defi ned as long-term cooperation agreements for the provision of high quality infrastructure, products, or services (7), with which signifi cant technical, legal, political, and economic risks are shared between the public and private sectors (8). In a previous study, we examined the fi nancial sus- tainability of the WT projects that were implemented through PPPs in Greece (9) and we developed a formula for the computation of the investors profi t rate (PR). The PRs minimum value that is calcu- lated through the specifi c formula can be used by decision makers to achieve the positive cash fl ows on behalf of the private sector throughout the projects time horizon, ensuring the partnerships fi nancial sustainability. Herein, we use the results arising through the above formula and we implement the quantitative risk analysis (QRA) of a WT project to validate the projects fi nancial sustainability. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The framework of the BOT contracts is presented in Section 2 and the review of the literature on the commonly used methods for the fi nancial analysis and the QRA are presented in Section 3. A QRA for the evaluation of a WT project is implemented in Section 4, while the results are discussed in Section 5 and useful conclusions are summarized in Section 6.