The evaluation of urban sustainability plays a crucial role in the process of the sustainable development of cities. To decrease subjectivity and attain a comprehensive evaluation, this paper develops an evaluation method using the technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). First, an evaluation index system including 39 indices and three categories (economic, social, and ecological development) is established; second, based on the index system, a modified TOPSIS, in which the entropy method is used to assign weights to each index according to its evaluation score and grey relation analysis is used to reduce the uncertainty existing in the process of evaluation, is presented to rank the sustainability level of cities. Finally, an example with the sustainability evaluation of 16 cities in the Anhui province of China is introduced to verify the effectiveness of the model.

In order to address challenges in the sustainable development of transportation, economy, and environment, governments of China and conventional automobile manufacturers are extremely concerned about the development of the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing industry and market. However, owing to the limitations of EVs and the government economic policies on decreasing subsidies in China, many manufacturers are worried about entering the EV market. Given the low consumer preference for EVs, using a leader-follower Stackelberg game model, we investigate the impact of government a subsidy on the optimal production and pricing decisions of an auto manufacturer who could produce both EVs and conventional vehicles. We characterize whether/under what conditions the manufacturer’s decision to offer EV products under government subsidy, whilst increasing its profits (a win-win situation). On the policy side, we delineate how government a subsidy can be set to realize the inherent economic, environmental, and social benefits of EV production (the triple win of EV production). We further investigate the impact of EV manufacturing- and society-related factors on the balance among manufacturer profits, environmental impact and social welfare. This study also finds that the adoption of EVs is not bound to be beneficial for the environment.

Carbon tax regulation and consumers’ low-carbon preference act as incentives for firms to abate emissions. Manufacturers can improve product sustainability and retailers can strengthen the promotion of low-carbon products as part of such abatement. Current incomplete rationality also affects product sustainability and low-carbon promotion level. In this context, we consider a supply chain with a manufacturer and a retailer and investigate the impacts of the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s fairness concerns on their production sustainability level, low-carbon promotion level and profitability. We also explore the coordination contract. The results show that the manufacturer’s and the retailer’s fairness concerns decrease their product sustainability and low-carbon promotion level, together with the profits of the system and the manufacturer. With regard to the retailer’s fairness concern, the product sustainability level and the manufacturer’s profit are lower; moreover, the low-carbon promotion level and the profits of the supply chain and the retailer are higher. A revenue-sharing contract can coordinate the supply chain perfectly; however, members’ fairness concerns increase the difficulty of coordination. Finally, the numerical results reveal that carbon tax regulation can encourage the manufacturer to enhance the product sustainability level. Further, the impacts on the low-carbon promotion level and firms’ profitability are related to the cost coefficients of product sustainability.