Building an effective system for carbon reduction management

The objective of this study is to introduce an evaluation system that allows firms to recognize the significant factors/criteria of carbon management and to develop strategies for carbon reduction. The evaluation criteria were developed from a literature review and consultations with practitioners in the electronics industry. We applied the Decision-Making Trial Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to construct the causal relationship among the evaluation system and the concepts of Analytic Network Process (ANP) to derive the influenced weights of criteria. This method can map out the structural relations among diverse factors in a complex system and identify the key factors for carbon management. The results indicate that carbon risk assessment is the most important criterion within the system, and manager commitment has the largest net influence degree viewed as the causal factor. Some management implications are provided in the discussion.