Research Article // Sustainability-Focused Excellence: A Novel Model Integrating the Water–Energy–Food Nexus for Agro-Industrial Companies
By Fernando Caixeta and colleagues. The agro-industrial sector lacks the novel tools needed to integrate sustainability in their businesses, such as business excellence models (BEMs). Therefore, the present research aims to propose a sustainability-focused excellence model by integrating the principles and objectives of the WEF nexus within existing BEM.
Figure 2. Illustrated overview of the sustainability-focused excellence model integrated with the PDCA cycle.
Abstract
The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus approach is gaining attention due to the challenge of better managing natural elements. Agro-industrial companies, given their environmental impacts, need to take sustainability into proper account. However, this sector lacks the novel tools needed to integrate current methodologies with additional quality frameworks, such as business excellence models (BEMs). Therefore, the present research aims to propose a sustainability-focused excellence model by integrating the principles and objectives of the WEF nexus with existing BEM and proposing its application to agro-industrial companies. For that purpose, a new conceptual model to integrate sustainability and excellence was built. The proposed novel model can become a decision-support tool in helping agro-industrial companies transition toward improved sustainability while managing existing tradeoffs and synergies.
Published
August 2022
By
Citation
Caixeta, F.; Carvalho, A.M.; Saraiva, P.; Freire, F. Sustainability-Focused Excellence: A Novel Model Integrating the Water–Energy–Food Nexus for Agro-Industrial Companies. Sustainability 2022, 14, 9678. https://doi.org/10.3390/su1415...Download
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