A Developed Mathematical Model for Designing a Multilevel Sustainable Supply Chain Network Taking into Account Environmental Decisions

Abstract

In this research, a novel mathematical model for sustainable supply chain network design is proposed. The main contribution and novelty of this research are considering environmentally friendly facilities and several thresholds for emitted pollution, which bring this research closer to real-world conditions. Since the amount of pollution produced by different supply chain facilities is not the same, it is better to make different decisions regarding each repair and renovation measure, i.e., environmental decisions should be considered step-by-step. In addition, the proposed model was optimized by the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) to find the best solution in large-scale instances in a short and reasonable time. Finally, the performance of the proposed model and the reduction of environmental impacts to improve the stability of logistics systems are reviewed in a case study. The results of the computational analysis show the efficiency of the proposed model.