Sustainability analysis of cement supply chains considering economic, environmental and social effects

Abstract

Cement is a fundamental ingredient in the construction industry and infrastructure development; these sectors depend on this raw material and the demand proportionally increases as the population of the world grows and the urbanization rate accelerates. Despite being a vital element of the development, cement manufacturing sector is a major source of GHG emissions and depletes the natural capital. In this paper we examine the effects of incorporating sustainability indicators in cement supply chains under the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) accounting of sustainability using multi-Objective optimization. We implement a tailored multi-objective optimization algorithm that generates unique optimal solutions hence giving an accurate and well-defined Pareto front to decision makers. Our model shows that even by including additional environmental and social considerations cement manufacturing is economically feasible.