Sustainability performance analysis with different forms of weak disposability of undesirable outputs: a case study of provincial gas companies

In the most investigations of sustainability, including environmental, social and economic issues, in addition to the desirable outputs, undesirable outputs are also presented, which is an obstacle to sustainable development. In this regard, the purpose of this paper is providing an approach based on Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with different forms of weak disposability of undesirable outputs to move towards sustainability.

Presenting a DEA-based model, the sustainability and performance of each dimension of sustainability are calculated simultaneously, while undesirable outputs are present with different forms of weak disposability. The sustainability performance of provincial gas companies is examined using the proposed technique.

The results show that the proposed method in the performance analysis of sustainability and its dimensions is efficient when undesirable outputs are presented.

Originality/Value:

 DEA provides a variety of disposability to minimize undesirable outputs and moves to optimize. In this study, an integrated approach with different forms of weak disposability is presented to analyze sustainability.