Climate change policies are affecting the economic and structural viability of European Union (EU) industries, particularly in the energy-intensive sector, with very challenging goals of EU Agenda 2030 in terms of CO2 reductions and energy efficiency. This ecological transition can be supported by the employment of innovative technologies, enabling production process efficiency, resource optimization and supply-chain integration. Nevertheless, it is still empirically unclear how energy-intensive industries will complete their ecological transition successfully, especially in terms of achieving environmental sustainability practices within the organization and in the supply-chain without endangering their economic availability. Moreover, the assessment of environmental sustainability performance is still not a unique standard framework, causing loss of transparency and traceability towards internal and external stakeholders, such as managers, investors and business partners. With 20 qualitative interviews of customers and experts of a company leader in the steel construction sector in Italy and Germany, the Feralpi Group, this paper explores the implications of strategic environmental sustainability indicators, which can transparently assess company performance. Preliminary results underline how shared standardized indicators are fundamental for a tighter supply-chain integration, giving impulse and significance to the steel producers’ efforts for environmental sustainability excellence. Future research should further investigate the connection between environmental sustainability strategies and performance indicators for a more integrated sustainability framework.

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Structuring and Measuring Environmental Sustainability in the Steel Sector: A Single Case Study

In this paper, we describe a comparative analysis of a bus route scheduling problem as part of timetable trips. We consider the current uptake of electric buses as a viable public transportation option that will eventually phase out the diesel-engine-based buses. We note that, with the increasing number of electric buses, the complexity related to the scheduling also increases, especially stemming from the charging requirement and the dedicated infrastructure behind it. The aim of our comparative study is to highlight the brevity with which a multi-agent-system-based scheduling method can be helpful as compared to the classical mixed-integer linear-programming-based approach. The multi-agent approach we design is centralized with asymmetric communication between the master agent, the bus agent, and the depot agent, which makes it possible to solve the multi-depot scheduling problem in almost real time as opposed to the classical optimizer, which sees a multi-depot problem as a combinatorial heuristic NP-hard problem, which, for large system cases, can be computationally inefficient to solve. We test the efficacy of the multi-agent algorithm and also compare the same with the MILP objective designed in harmony with the multi-agent system. We test the comparisons first on a small network and then extend the scheduling application to real data extracted from the public transport of the Maltese Islands.

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Optimizing the Scheduling of Electrified Public Transport System in Malta

This article reviews the accomplishments of studies in which optimization tools were used to develop energy-efficient and sustainable construction schedules. With the increase in global awareness of environmental issues, the construction industry has been forced to explore innovative techniques to make the building process more energy-efficient and sustainable. Project managers can use optimization tools in their scheduling procedures to address these issues in the early stages of the project. Therefore, this paper examines different optimization-based construction scheduling methods and their impact on schedule energy efficiency and the three key sustainability goals: economic viability, social equity, and environmental protection. Such a review has not yet been conducted to the best of our knowledge. This research aims to fill the gap and contribute to understanding advanced optimization tools that can pave the way to energy-efficient and sustainable scheduling practices. After a brief introduction, the background of optimization-based construction scheduling techniques that aim to improve construction management and incorporate these aspects into the decision-making process is explained. Then, these approaches are addressed in detail. It is determined for each study whether it adopted energy efficiency goals and which sustainability dimensions it considered within the proposed optimization model. The results of this study indicate a wide heuristic algorithms application for complex scheduling problems. Meanwhile, mathematical programming is still quite unexplored, especially methods that utilize algebraic modeling languages. This study provides a foundation for further research by addressing the current reach in development and possible knowledge gaps that could be researched in future studies. The paper also discusses the advantages and limitations of different approaches and illustrates the potential for utilizing these methods. Supported by the main review findings, conclusions and recommendations for further research are provided. 

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Lester L. Grabbe

Papers

A Review of Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Construction Scheduling Supported with Optimization Tools