Future-proofing the workforce: A fuzzy AHP–MARCOS model for evaluating green and digital reskilling in the ESG era

This research presents a novel methodology for evaluating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance by integrating internal human capital development with conventional environmental and governance criteria. Traditional ESG evaluations often prioritize outward disclosures, neglecting the internal organizational competencies essential for long-term sustainability alignment. A capability-oriented strategy is recommended to mitigate this constraint by including workforce development, diversity, and inclusion into ESG examination. The manuscript examines 50 publicly traded energy companies in Europe, assessed by 10 ESG indicators sourced from Refinitiv Eikon for the fiscal year 2024. The indicators comprise three social metrics (people development, diversity, and inclusion), three environmental metrics (CO₂ emissions per revenue, energy consumption per employee, and waste recycling rate), and four governance-related indicators (human rights score, corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy, management rating, and total ESG score). A hybrid multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach is used, integrating the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (Fuzzy AHP) for criterion weighting and the Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to the Compromise Solution (MARCOS) technique for performance assessment. This integration allows for expert contributions under uncertain conditions and for comparison with optimal and suboptimal situations. The results indicate that companies exhibiting robust internal growth continually surpass those that prioritize solely disclosure policies. The use of human capital metrics substantially modified ESG rankings, revealing superficial adherence in some instances. The sensitivity analysis validated the model's resilience across several weighting scenarios. The proposed framework provides a reproducible and policy-relevant instrument for ESG assessment in high-impact industries experiencing green and digital transformation.