New Directions toward Sustainable Banking Practices: An environmental efficiency evaluation of Brazilian Federal Saving Bank branches

In this paper, we present a methodology that explores PROMETHEE structures to compose a Cost Efficiency Indicator. Directional distance functions (DDF) were employed to measure the technical and allocative efficiency of decision units as an advance for the traditional radial measurements of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) models. In this proposal, exploring some of the PROMETHEE structures, the directional input vector is evaluated by a function of the difference in preference levels for the sustainable use of resources, so the performance of the decision unit is evaluated by choosing a viable direction of which outputs should be expanded and entries are contracted. The flexibility in this linear programming method allows the incorporation of preference structures from one or several decision makers to support empirical assessments that require a pre-determined market value judgment. The application of this proposal in the Brazilian banking sector has the inputs such as water consumption, electricity and printing weighted intensively to point direction for an environmental efficiency measure which can be used to classify the units, reward sustainable-efficient managers and determine the optimal input-output relationship based on the adopted direction.