Analysis of environmental priorities for green project investments using an integrated q-rung orthopair fuzzy modeling

Abstract

Green energy projects contribute to sustainable economic development of countries with the employment of environmentally friendly energy production strategies. However, environmental priorities should be examined for this situation. Therefore, priority analysis should be executed for the environmental issues while implementing green investment projects. Accordingly, this study aims at proposing a unique decision-making model based on orthopair fuzzy sets and the golden cut degrees for the environmental priorities of green project investments. The main novelty of the study stems from its proposed integrated model by equipping the Multi-SWARA, and TOPSIS based on the q-ROFSs technique with the golden cut. A set of criteria is identified for measuring the green projects' environmental priorities while several project alternatives are also determined with the supporting literature. Appropriately, the extensions of Multi-SWARA and TOPSIS methods have been applied for weighting and ranking the factors, respectively, in the integrated approach. Additionally, a comparative evaluation is performed with the help of VIKOR method to rank the alternatives. Besides, the sensitivity analysis is applied to illustrate the coherency of the weighting results in the decision-making approach. Accordingly, 5 cases are considered to measure the effects of changing weight results. It is defined that this model is coherent and could be extended for further studies. It is concluded that the reduction of emissions is the most essential item for the environmental priorities of green project investments. Pollution control, waste management and eco-friendly transportation activities are the most critical alternatives. Therefore, this study recommends that investors of green projects should prioritize the strategies of minimizing carbon emissions problem. In this context, investing in renewable energy technologies will help green project investors solve this problem.