IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v24y2022i12d10.1007_s10668-021-02005-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis and measurement of the sustainability level in the furniture industry

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandre André Feil

    (University of Vale do Taquari – Univates)

  • Iane Brito Reiter

    (University of Vale do Taquari - Univates)

  • Renata Oberherr

    (University of Vale do Taquari - Univates)

  • Virgílio José Strasburg

    (University Federal of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS))

  • Dusan Schreiber

    (University of Feevale)

Abstract

Sustainability assessment of the furniture industry using a group of indicators and/or index concerning the manufacture of Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF)-based furniture is scarce in literature and in organizational practice. For this assessment to be effective and to contribute with the management process, the group of sustainability indicators defined under the perspective of the triple bottom line approach must be specific to the activity and to company size. Therefore, the present study aims to measure and analyze sustainability at an organizational level, to help in management and decision-making processes of micro- and small-sized furniture companies in the Taquari Valley region, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The methodology used was qualiquantitative considering a multiple-case study applied to 29 furniture companies, based on interviews and document research. The main results showed that the construction of a sustainability index was validated by statistical methodologies, which supported the consistence and quality of the sustainability assessment of furniture companies. The sustainability level was considered higher than 0.600 (0.000–1.000) in 75.8% of the 29 furniture companies. Sustainability effectiveness was higher regarding indicators of the economic and social dimensions and lower regarding the environmental dimension. The environmental dimension of the furniture companies had the most critical results, especially regarding the indicators “Recycling and reuse”, “Electric energy”, “Water”, and “Waste recycling”. In conclusion, sustainability assessment of the furniture industry using a group of indicators and an index helped highlight the indicators related to the three sustainability dimensions, thus enabling the identification of weaker aspects.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandre André Feil & Iane Brito Reiter & Renata Oberherr & Virgílio José Strasburg & Dusan Schreiber, 2022. "Analysis and measurement of the sustainability level in the furniture industry," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(12), pages 13657-13682, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:24:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1007_s10668-021-02005-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-021-02005-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-021-02005-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-021-02005-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Francesca Borga & Annalisa Citterio & Giuliano Noci & Emanuele Pizzurno, 2009. "Sustainability report in small enterprises: case studies in Italian furniture companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(3), pages 162-176, March.
    2. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2006. "Comparing aggregating methods for constructing the composite environmental index: An objective measure," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(3), pages 305-311, September.
    3. Ebert, Udo & Welsch, Heinz, 2004. "Meaningful environmental indices: a social choice approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 270-283, March.
    4. Castellani, V. & Sala, S., 2010. "Sustainable performance index for tourism policy development," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 871-880.
    5. Jakob Hildebrandt & Alberto Bezama & Daniela Thrän, 2020. "Insights from the Sustainability Monitoring Tool SUMINISTRO Applied to a Case Study System of Prospective Wood-Based Industry Networks in Central Germany," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-30, May.
    6. Andrew J. Collins & Patrick Hester & Barry Ezell & John Horst, 2016. "An improvement selection methodology for key performance indicators," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 196-208, June.
    7. Jan L. Wenker & Klaus Richter & Sebastian Rüter, 2018. "A Methodical Approach for Systematic Life Cycle Assessment of Wood‐Based Furniture," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(4), pages 671-685, August.
    8. Stefan A. Seuring & Julia Koplin & Torsten Behrens & Uwe Schneidewind, 2003. "Sustainability assessment in the German detergent industry: from stakeholder involvement to sustainability indicators," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(4), pages 199-212.
    9. Patlitzianas, Konstantinos D. & Doukas, Haris & Kagiannas, Argyris G. & Psarras, John, 2008. "Sustainable energy policy indicators: Review and recommendations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 966-973.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Habib Zare Ahmadabadi & Fatemeh Zamzam & Ali Emrouznejad & Alireza Naser Sadrabadi & Ali Morovati Sharifabadi, 2024. "A modified distance friction minimization model with optimistic–pessimistic target orientation for OECD sustainable performance measurement," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(9), pages 23113-23149, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Miguel F. Salvado & Susana G. Azevedo & João C. O. Matias & Luís M. Ferreira, 2015. "Proposal of a Sustainability Index for the Automotive Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-32, February.
    2. Jie Zhang & Majed Alharthi & Qaiser Abbas & Weiqing Li & Muhammad Mohsin & Khan Jamal & Farhad Taghizadeh-Hesary, 2020. "Reassessing the Environmental Kuznets Curve in Relation to Energy Efficiency and Economic Growth," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-21, October.
    3. Hatefi, S.M. & Torabi, S.A., 2010. "A common weight MCDA-DEA approach to construct composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 114-120, November.
    4. P. Zhou & B. Ang & D. Zhou, 2010. "Weighting and Aggregation in Composite Indicator Construction: a Multiplicative Optimization Approach," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 169-181, March.
    5. Liu, Yang & Dilanchiev, Azer & Xu, Kaifei & Hajiyeva, Aytan Merdan, 2022. "Financing SMEs and business development as new post Covid-19 economic recovery determinants," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 554-567.
    6. Pollesch, N.L. & Dale, V.H., 2016. "Normalization in sustainability assessment: Methods and implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 195-208.
    7. Vijaya Krishnan, 2015. "Development of a Multidimensional Living Conditions Index (LCI)," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 455-481, January.
    8. Tianjiao Wang & Yelin Fu, 2020. "Constructing Composite Indicators with Individual Judgements and Best–Worst Method: An Illustration of Value Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(1), pages 1-14, May.
    9. Heidi K. Edmonds & Julie E. Lovell & C. A. Knox Lovell, 2017. "A New Composite Index for Greenhouse Gases: Climate Science Meets Social Science," Resources, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-16, October.
    10. Milica Maricic & Jose A. Egea & Veljko Jeremic, 2019. "A Hybrid Enhanced Scatter Search—Composite I-Distance Indicator (eSS-CIDI) Optimization Approach for Determining Weights Within Composite Indicators," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 144(2), pages 497-537, July.
    11. Zhou, P. & Wang, M., 2016. "Carbon dioxide emissions allocation: A review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 47-59.
    12. Tayfun Büke & Aylin Çiğdem Köne, 2016. "Assessing Air Quality in Turkey: A Proposed, Air Quality Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-8, January.
    13. Zhou, P. & Ang, B.W. & Poh, K.L., 2007. "A mathematical programming approach to constructing composite indicators," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(2), pages 291-297, April.
    14. Brajer, Victor & Mead, Robert W. & Xiao, Feng, 2011. "Searching for an Environmental Kuznets Curve in China's air pollution," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 383-397, September.
    15. Cory Searcy, 2012. "Corporate Sustainability Performance Measurement Systems: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 239-253, May.
    16. Sacchidananda Mukherjee & Debashis Chakraborty, 2007. "Environment, Human Development and Economic Growth after Liberalisation: An Analysis of Indian States," Working Papers 2007-016, Madras School of Economics,Chennai,India.
    17. Kortelainen, Mika, 2008. "Dynamic environmental performance analysis: A Malmquist index approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(4), pages 701-715, February.
    18. Zhang, L.P. & Zhou, P., 2018. "A non-compensatory composite indicator approach to assessing low-carbon performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 270(1), pages 352-361.
    19. M. M. Segovia-González & I. Contreras, 2023. "A Composite Indicator to Compare the Performance of Male and Female Students in Educational Systems," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 165(1), pages 181-212, January.
    20. P. Zhou & B. Ang, 2009. "Comparing MCDA Aggregation Methods in Constructing Composite Indicators Using the Shannon-Spearman Measure," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 94(1), pages 83-96, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:24:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1007_s10668-021-02005-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.