Development of indicators for the sustainability of the sugar industry

被引:17
作者
Alberto Garcia-Bustamante, Carlos [1 ]
Aguilar-Rivera, Noe [2 ]
Zepeda-Pirron, Manuel [1 ]
Armendariz-Arnez, Cynthia [1 ]
机构
[1] Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Unidad Morelia, Escuela Nacl Estudios Super, Antigua Carretera Patzcuaro 870, Morelia 58190, Michoacan, Mexico
[2] Univ Veracruzana, Fac Ciencias Biol & Agr, Reg Orizaba Cordoba, Km 1 Carretera Penuela Amatlan de los Reyes S-N, Cordoba Veracruz 94945, Mexico
关键词
life cycle analysis; carbon footprint; multicriteria evaluation; AHP; decision makers;
D O I
10.2478/environ-2018-0025
中图分类号
X [环境科学、安全科学];
学科分类号
08 ; 0830 ;
摘要
Sustainable development has been highlighted widely in productive sectors such as the sugar industry with new paradigms and trends such restructuring of sugar mills in biorefineries and development of green chemical from byproducts, considering issues such as technology adoption towards sustainability, circular economy, climate change, value chain, sustainability assessment and decision making. Production of cane sugar is one of Mexico's main agro-industries; it conveys numerous positive socio-economic impacts and presents opportunities for productive diversification and enhanced profitability and competiveness. The sugar industry faces sustainability challenges due to the management of natural resources like soil, water, fossil fuels and agrochemicals, as well as the impacts of its greenhouse gas emissions and socio-economic constraints. However, sustainability of cane and sugar production cannot be assessed due to a lack of methodological frameworks for integrating economic and environmental indicators. We propose an index for Mexico's sugar agro-industry that facilitates the identification of those system components that impact sustainability. This index is based on a reduced number of indicators aggregated through a multi-criteria evaluation using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). We apply this index to evaluate four sugar production systems in Mexico: producers of raw, refined, muscovado sugar and ethanol. Results show that systems with a high agro-industrial yield present better sustainability performance. This study is relevant because it provides quantitative information for decision makers towards a sustainable sugarcane agro-industry, based on the indicators used to build the sustainability index, to address actions as increase productive diversification by-products based, improve access to credit, irrigation, management practices and raw material quality reducing production costs, eliminate fossil fuel use in factories, make fertilizer application more efficient and reduce the area that is burned for manual harvest.
引用
收藏
页码:22 / 38
页数:17
相关论文
共 83 条
[1]   Integrated assessment of sustainability trade-offs and pathways for global bioenergy production: Framing a novel hybrid approach [J].
Acosta-Michlik, Lilibeth ;
Lucht, Wolfgang ;
Bondeau, Alberte ;
Beringer, Tim .
RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS, 2011, 15 (06) :2791-2809
[2]  
Aguilar N, 2012, ING INVEST, V32, P23
[3]  
Aguilar-Rivera N, 2014, AGRIC SOC DESARRO, V11, P441
[4]  
Alckmin-Governor G., 2004, ASSESSMENT GREENHOUS
[5]   Bioenergy in Mexico: Status and perspective [J].
Aleman-Nava, Gibran S. ;
Meneses-Jacome, Alexander ;
Cardenas-Chavez, Diana L. ;
Diaz-Chavez, Rocio ;
Scarlat, Nicolae ;
Dallemand, Jean-Francois ;
Ornelas-Soto, Nancy ;
Garcia-Arrazola, Roeb ;
Parra, Roberto .
BIOFUELS BIOPRODUCTS & BIOREFINING-BIOFPR, 2015, 9 (01) :8-20
[6]  
Amaya A., 2010, P INT SOC SUG CAN TE, V27
[7]  
[Anonymous], 2008, GLOBALIZATION WATER
[8]   Indicators of sustainable development for industry: A general framework [J].
Azapagic, A ;
Perdan, S .
PROCESS SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, 2000, 78 (B4) :243-261
[9]   Technical and economical evaluation of bioethanol production from lignocellulosic residues in Mexico: Case of sugarcane and blue agave bagasses [J].
Barrera, Iliana ;
Amezcua-Allieri, Myriam A. ;
Estupinan, Lorena ;
Martinez, Tabata ;
Aburto, Jorge .
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING RESEARCH & DESIGN, 2016, 107 :91-101
[10]   Review of design works for the conversion of sugarcane to first and second-generation ethanol and electricity [J].
Bechara, Rami ;
Gomez, Adrien ;
Saint-Antonin, Valerie ;
Schweitzer, Jean-Marc ;
Marechal, Francois ;
Ensinas, Adriano .
RENEWABLE & SUSTAINABLE ENERGY REVIEWS, 2018, 91 :152-164