| Title |
Walking the tightrope: Can integrated decision support transform business sustainability? |
| ID_Doc |
75376 |
| Authors |
Sanatkumar, N; Berka-Harnmeijer, AL |
| Title |
Walking the tightrope: Can integrated decision support transform business sustainability? |
| Year |
2024 |
| Published |
|
| DOI |
10.1016/j.jclepro.2024.141366 |
| Abstract |
Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda 2030 requires accelerated reorientation and investment towards social and environmental goals, with sophisticated methods to resolve inherent trade-offs across goals and improvement on how companies define, measure and pursue social and environmental value. We use action research to test and evaluate the ability of an integrated assessment tool to support balanced assessments and decision-making across economic and environmental goals in two large corporations. Following characterisation of Environmental, Social and Governance practices, Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) was applied to three use cases and the process evaluated and compared to business-as-usual decision-making processes. MCDA was intuitive, widely understood, models were easily developed by working with relevant staff to identify alternative options for ranking, appropriate criteria, measures, and parameters. MCDA was effectively applied to a wide range of decision problems related to materiality ranking, investment, and capability prioritisation. The process drove broader stakeholder engagement, revealed and challenged implicit assumptions and preferences on cost minimisation, improved robustness and transparency of decision-making, and, through integration of non-economic criteria, shifted favoured alternatives in all use cases. We pinpoint challenges and opportunities for broad-scale adoption of MCDA. |
| Author Keywords |
Transformative sustainability; Multi -criteria decision analysis; ESG; Sustainability trade-off; Action research; Integrated assessment |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED) |
| EID |
WOS:001197480500001 |
| WoS Category |
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology; Engineering, Environmental; Environmental Sciences |
| Research Area |
Science & Technology - Other Topics; Engineering; Environmental Sciences & Ecology |
| PDF |
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