Ridge Penalization-based weighting approach for Eco-Efficiency assessment: The case in the food industry in the United States

Abstract

Eco-efficiency assessment is of great importance for monitoring and managing environmental and economic aspects of sustainable development. The eco-efficiency indicators are required to assess and measure the impact of multiple environmental aspects per unit of economic value-added. The aggregation of multiple environmental impacts in the presence of high correlation is a critical challenge to sustainability practitioners. This study presents a weighting approach using ridge penalization-based regression to overcoming the consequence of the high correlation among the environmental aspects and hence providing accurate weighting values. The performance of the proposed approach is assessed using economic and environmental footprints of 20 food industries in the United States. The new weighting approach is expected to provide decision-makers with a quantitative management tool for monitoring and controlling core operational functions associated with the sustainable development and management.