Abstract
Sustainable development challenges are nowhere more relevant than in the natural resource sectors, most importantly coal mining, due to environmental and societal challenges, which are a known fact. A plethora of frameworks and indicators for assessing sustainable development are available in the literature. The GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) is one such instrument that is predominantly adopted by various sectors. However, the large number of GRI indicators often draws concern about the accuracy of measurements and management of the variables. The present study aims to prioritize the 78 GRI indicators for the mining sector on four attributes—practicality, relevance, reliability, and importance—to enhance the accuracy of measurements. A survey-based methodology in line with the Delphi method and the multicriteria decision-making methods (MCDM) TOPSIS, MOORA, and SAW combined with criteria weight calculation by the entropy method is applied to rank the GRI indicators. The study enables the prioritization of 78 indicators into 20 indicators based on stakeholder perception using a perceptual map and ranks them through the application of MCDM. Second, the larger Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of TOPSIS with MOORA and SAW shows better agreement between these three MCDM methods. The study demonstrates the usefulness of the MCDM methods either individually or in combination as a tool to support the decision-making process for prioritizing the indicators, assessing sustainability at coal mine sites, and benchmarking between adjacent mine sites.
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VP conceptualized the study, performed data collection and analysis, and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. KA conceptualized, supervised, and reviewed the study. GB supervised the methodologies applied in the study and reviewed the results. SG performed data analysis and prepared the figures. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Prasad, V., Bandyopadhyay, G., Adhikari, K. et al. An Integrated Framework for Prioritizing Sustainability Indicators for the Mining Sector with a Multicriteria Decision-Making Technique. Oper. Res. Forum 4, 5 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43069-022-00188-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43069-022-00188-y