Sustainability Performance in Food Supply Networks: Insights from the UK Industry

Avenues of decarbonisation in the dynamics of processed food supply chains: Towards responsible production consumption

Nowadays, the demand for processed food items is surging. To fulfil the enhanced demand, a significant impact is laid on the environment, which enhances the carbon footprint being generated. Hence, to overcome this, the avenues of decarbonisation need to be explored. The presented work is aimed at promoting the decarbonisation of the existing practices within the processed food supply chains. It finds strong compliance with the sustainable development goal (SDG-12), focusing on responsible production-consumption mechanisms. For the same, key enactors of decarbonisation are identified and mapped with the practices at various stages of food supply chains, i.e. upstream, downstream, and other allied practices. Based upon these enactors, a relational, hierarchical framework is developed to provide a comprehensive perspective on complex intricacies. This framework is analysed with an innovative approach which comprises the fundamentals of Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Hesitant Fuzzy Set with the Entropy measures. It results in the outranking of the enactors relative to its importance in the decarbonisation of processed food supply chains. Furthermore, the empirical findings are validated by the sensitivity analysis to felicitate robust decision-making. The outcomes of the presented work provide a roadmap and stepped approach to achieve the decarbonisation goals and make production-consumption mechanisms sustainable. It finds implications in the development of the framework, policy formulation, and decisional attributes for the decarbonisation of food supply chains. It focuses on the adoption of strategies that align with global efforts to mitigate climate change and promote a sustainable future.

Sufficiency, Consistency, and Efficiency as a Base for Systemizing Sustainability Measures in Food Supply Chains

Due to severe biodiversity and climate crises, there is now a need for sustainable supply chains. Food supply chains contribute to biodiversity loss, especially through land use and agriculture. In addition, energy-intensive storage for refrigeration and intercontinental transportation lead to high emission along chains due to seasonality. Selecting and prioritizing decarbonization actions is a key task for decision makers along food supply chains this decade. Often, modernizing supply chains by integrating information and digital technologies is seen as beneficial for environmental goals. The aim of this work is to develop a new systematization of sustainability measures based on archetypal sustainability strategies (sufficiency, consistency, and efficiency) that support the prioritization and thus the selection of decarbonization measures. Existing measures will be researched through a structured literature review. At the same time, it is recorded how they are categorized or systematized. Forty-eight different systematizations are analyzed. The majority relate to specific sectors and are not generally transferable. Sustainability is often addressed using the triple bottom line. In particular, efficiency and consistency measures are often included in the categories found but are rarely used for systematization. A new systematization of sustainability measures is proposed and applied to a set of digitalization and logistics 4.0 measures using the example of a fresh apple supply chain. The advantages of the proposed systematization are discussed, and further research directions are given. The presented method has not been examined in the literature so far; this concerns both the width and depth of the consideration of supply chains.

Measuring the sustainability of beef supply chain with rapid appraisal for beef supply chain

Background and Aim:

Nationally, there has always been a gap between the demand for beef and its supply, although supply growth is proportional with demand growth and even exceeds it in some regions in Indonesia. This research study aims to measure the sustainability status of the beef supply chain and applies the developed measurement system to a specific beef supply chain by identifying suitable indicators and their scale. Moreover, this research study provides some recommendations for the improvement of the sustainability status of the beef supply chain.

Materials and Methods:

In this research study, 11 and nine indicators were analyzed to assess the sustainability status of the beef supply chain at the farm and slaughterhouse chain levels. A rapid appraisal for beef supply chain was applied to rapidly assess the sustainability status of beef supply chains using Multidimensional Scaling (MDS). The Delphi method was utilized as an iterative process to collect data and obtain consensus of experts’ judgments regarding the policies that should be implemented to improve the most sensitive indicator affecting the economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

Results:

Analysis of ordination with MDS shows the regional sustainability index value for multidimensional approaches of beef cattle farms and beef slaughterhouses. The sustainability index value for beef cattle farms was 56.14 (moderately sustainable), 48.02 (fairly unsustainable), and 48.77 (fairly unsustainable) in Semarang, Sragen, and Boyolali, respectively. Moreover, the sustainability index value for beef slaughterhouses was 47.05 (fairly unsustainable), 54.83 (moderately sustainable), and 54.19 (moderately sustainable) in Semarang, Sragen, and Boyolali, respectively. Policy recommendation was focused on the basis of the results of leverage analysis, which highlighted the most indicative factor affecting sustainability for each dimension.

Conclusion:

Measurement results revealed that the achievement of beef supply chain sustainability requires targeted efforts through the deployment of several policies as the current status of sustainability in beef farms and beef slaughterhouses was only inclined toward moderately sustainable and fairly unsustainable. Although all the surveyed regions in this study can meet the regional needs of beef meat on their own and even distribute the excess to other regions, none of the beef supply chains of the surveyed region indicated good sustainability.

Resonance of Investments in Renewable Energy Sources in Industrial Enterprises in the Food Industry

Investments in renewable energy sources are an important direction in the development of modern economies. Motivating organizations to include appropriate investments in their development strategies becomes an essential issue. It seems clear that organizations need to see the long-term benefits of such investments in order to follow this trend. This article presents a thesis that assumes that from the microeconomic perspective, such investments are conducive to the implementation of various goals of the organization, causing the phenomenon of resonance in spheres such as the implementation of the sustainable development strategy, the level of innovation in the organization, brand image, and brand equity. The survey method was carried out on a sample of 143 industrial companies in the food industry in order to verify the hypotheses based on previous examples. Among the most important findings, it should be noted that investments in renewable energy sources make a significant contribution to building the market position of enterprises, in particular, to the level of innovation, creating value in a sustainable enterprise, and achieving goals in the area of creating a positive brand image and brand equity. The findings show that investing in renewable energy is compatible with the organization’s different goals.

Sustainability Management of Organic Food Organizations: A Case Study of Azerbaijan

Potentially, sustainable development can lead to the global alignment of goals and values, such as social justice and environmental balance. This study examines the supplier sustainability management programs that exist in the food industry and combine economic, environmental, and social priorities using sustainability theory. The study aims to identify sustainability priorities and develops recommendations for Azerbaijani agrifood policy in order to ensure the dynamic sustainable development of the national food industry and economy. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model and the priority theory enabled the identification of global priorities in relation to Ganja Agribusiness Association (GABA). These priorities include climatic conditions issues, certification standards and labels, possibility of acquiring land in private ownership, price of land, and qualification characteristics of the workforce.

Minimizing losses at red meat supply chain with circular and central slaughterhouse model

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to find solutions to improve the red meat sector in an emerging economy, Turkey, from the circular economy point of view, and taking sustainability approach. The need for circular management within the red meat sector in Turkey is emphasized by using Grey method. As theoretical contribution of this study, the investigation of the causes of losses at the slaughter stages of the red meat supply chain leads to proposals for sustainable and circular solutions.

Design/methodology/approach

Grey method is used to predict the number of slaughtered cattle and the amount of bone and blood waste in the slaughtering process between 2018 and 2020.

Findings

It is revealed that according to Grey prediction calculations, although the amount of slaughtered cattle, bone and blood waste seem have decreased between 2018 and 2020, there are still significant losses in Turkish red meat sector. For bone waste, this is expected to be 56,581,200 kg in 2018, 48,235,840 kg in 2019 and 41,121,380 kg in 2020. For blood waste, it is expected to be 24,754,275 kg in 2018, 21,103,180 kg in 2019 and 17,990,604 kg in 2020.

Social implications

The proposed model in the study will contribute on sector revitalization, increase in product safety, quality and hygiene, development in the management of training and education centers for farmers/labors and increase in employment.

Originality/value

This paper represents policymakers with a proposal for triple bottom line (TBL) based circular and central slaughterhouse model, based on TBL, which brings social, economic and environmental benefits for the red meat sector in Turkey.