Enhanced data envelopment analysis for sustainability assessment: a novel methodology and application to electricity technologies
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Guillen Gosalbez, G
Galán-Martín, A
Stamford, L
Azapagic, A
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Quantifying the level of sustainability attained by a system is a challenging task due to the need to consider a wide range of economic, environmental and social aspects simultaneously. This work explores the application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the sustainability ‘efficiency’ of a system. We propose an enhanced DEA methodology that uses the concept of ‘order of efficiency’ to compare and rank alternatives according to the extent to which they adhere to sustainability principles. The capabilities of the proposed approach are illustrated through a sustainability assessment of different technologies for electricity generation in United Kingdom. In addition to screening the alternatives based on sustainability principles, enhanced DEA provides improvement targets for the least sustainable alternatives that, if achieved, would make them more sustainable. The enhanced DEA shows clearly the ultimate distance to sustainability, helping industry and policy makers to improve the efficiency of technologies, products and policies.
Date Issued
2016-04-20
Date Acceptance
2016-04-16
Citation
Computers & Chemical Engineering, 2016, 90, pp.188-200
ISSN
0098-1354
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
188
End Page
200
Journal / Book Title
Computers & Chemical Engineering
Volume
90
Copyright Statement
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Subjects
Chemical Engineering
0904 Chemical Engineering
0913 Mechanical Engineering
Publication Status
Published