A New Product Configuration Model for Low Product Cost and Carbon-Neutral Expenditure

Guangyu Zou, Zhongkai Li () and Chao He
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Guangyu Zou: School of Mechatronics Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221000, China
Zhongkai Li: School of Mechatronics Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221000, China
Chao He: School of Mechatronics Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221000, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 13, 1-21

Abstract: In the background of global carbon-neutral requirements, enterprises need to control carbon emissions in the process of product lifecycles in order to gain market competitive advantages. Previous product configuration studies, mostly focused on minimizing carbon dioxide emissions, have ignored the issue of carbon-neutral costs. This study quantifies the product costs borne by enterprises and the carbon-neutral cost borne by the government, respectively. A carbon-neutral cost model for suppliers, enterprises, customers, and recycling plants in the whole life cycle of products was constructed. The whole life cycle carbon emissions and the unit carbon removal costs were taken into account in the carbon-neutral cost model. By minimizing product and carbon-neutral costs, a bi-objective integer programming model was constructed. The NSGA-II algorithm was introduced to solve the Pareto front of the model. The feasibility and effectiveness of this method were then illustrated through a case study and results comparison. It showed that, compared with the scheme of carbon emissions reduction, the optimization scheme with carbon-neutral costs as the object had a significant change. Integrating carbon-neutral costs into product development activities was effective in reducing the enterprise’s product cost and the government’s financial expenditure on carbon removal simultaneously. The proposed model could provide a win–win product configuration scheme for the government and enterprises.

Keywords: product configuration; carbon-neutral cost; carbon emission; modeling; low-carbon design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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