Identification and prioritization of green productivity indices for evaluating knowledge-based food companies in Tehran province

The purpose of this research is to identify and classify suitable indicators of green productivity for evaluating knowledge-based food companies in Tehran province. The food industry and, accordingly, the knowledge-based food companies are considered as one of the industries that pollute the environment. The main goal of green productivity is to increase protection of the environment in such a way that increases commercial profitability and its main approach is to improve the quality of life. Considering the importance of productivity and environment in sustainable development, it is important to address green productivity indicators and evaluate knowledge-based companies and rank them. According to the mentioned cases and policies in Iran, it is expected that the number of knowledge-based companies active in the field of food will increase in the near future. Therefore, it seems necessary to provide solutions for higher productivity from the existing and limited resource, with the least damage to the environment. Evaluation of knowledge-based companies with different goals, such as study of the factors affecting their growth and success, the impact of cultural and social factors, the factors affecting the development of these companies has been the subject of previous studies. Based on our knowledge, there is no identification of green productivity indicators for the evaluation of knowledge-based food companies in Tehran province, that's why this topic is the target of this study. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of method. The statistical population of this research includes all the managers of knowledge-based food companies in the in Tehran province, and 10 experts have been selected as a sample. The sampling method is based on the snowball method in such a way that after choosing the first person as a sample, he is asked to introduce another person as an expert and this work continues until a certain point to achieve theoretical saturation. In this research, two tools were used to collect information. The relative comparison table of the indicators, which was similar to the Likert scale was used to evaluate the indicators. Also, pairwise comparison questionnaire was used to rank the indicators. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) steps were performed as follows:1-Forming a hierarchical tree, 2- Determining priorities using paired comparisons of criteria together, 3- Measuring the logical compatibility of paired comparison judgments with calculating the incompatibility index. Validity of AHP questionnaire was done using content validity and its reliability was done using incompatibility index. For each matrix of pairwise comparisons, incompatibility index less than 0.1 is acceptable. In 1402, 394 knowledge-based companies were active in the field of agriculture, biotechnology, and food industries in Iran. Tehran, Alborz, and Isfahan provinces, having 90, 36, and 29 companies in this field, ranked first to third respectively. The distribution percentage of knowledge-based companies in the field of biotechnologies, agriculture and food industries in different provinces showed that 69% of knowledge-based companies exists in 11 provinces of Iran. 10 knowledge-based companies in the field of biotechnology, agriculture and food in Tehran provincout out of 90 are food companies. In the next step, 37 green productivity indicators that presented in various researches have been extracted from the literature, and then according to the needs of the research as well as the characteristics of the knowledge-based food companies, these indicators were screened by the experts of the food companies and lastly 9 indicators were considered as the final criteria. Based on literature, field studies and expert opinions, the main indicators include waste management, noise pollution management, materials of production process, water consumption management, energy consumption management, air pollution management, environmental laws and investment, culturalozation, social responsibility, and level of process technology were selected. The weighting of these indicators using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and Expert Choice-11 software showed that the criteria of waste management, water consumption management, energy consumption management, air pollution management with weights of 0.241, 0.153, 0.142 and 0.130 respectively and the incompatibility index of less than 0.1, are the most important criteria in the ranking of knowledge-based food companies in Tehran province. The results of this research showed that the Analytical Hierarchy (AHP) technique can be used to define a model for ranking knowledge-based food companies in Tehran province based on green productivity criteria. All these indicators can be used to rank the knowledge-based food companies of Tehran province based on green productivity, but due to the greater weight of waste management, this index can be solely used to evaluate green companies. Knowledge-based companies in Iran are facing various challenges such as economic problems, therefore being green is not their first priority. Although investing in improving the environmental performance of the supply chain brings many advantages and benefits such as saving energy consumption, reducing pollutants, eliminating or reducing waste, and increasing productivity for various production and service organizations. It is suggested to pay attention to green productivity indicators in the evaluation and audit of knowledge-based food companies to provide facilities to them. Also, it is important to consider the environmental laws and investment, green management and having a green productivity team in knowledge-basad food companies should be given more importance.