Households waste considerable food and we get it that's bad but that's not the topic of the moment. In the European Union, eighty-eight million tons of food are wasted every year because of the overall strategy or process of delivery.
Note: this may get a tad thick but there's good news in it.
For this article, we'll use strategy for the overall process which gets food from the farmer to the shelf. The strategy has to be universal across the industry or the industry falls apart, at least for large marketing areas. Tactical solutions are where, for example, Kroger in Cincinnati comes up with some wizard way to unload trucks faster and therefore keep food fresher. That's great for Cincinnati but it's not strategy unless it goes across the industry. The logistical aspect of the solution is how you get it done. For example, if your trucks break down then you will have a tactical problem in the area they serve and the logistical problem is what you will do about it.
SD: Quarter of a million tons of food could be saved a year with better logistics
"The amount of food that is thrown away nowadays is incredible. Most food waste comes from consumers, but the amount lost in the logistics systems comes in a close second. By tweaking the logistics systems, we can ensure that the food maintains good quality and lasts as long as possible when it reaches the store," says Kristina Liljestrand.
This is where Kristina Liljestrand's research comes into play. She holds a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. In recent years, she has figured out how companies in the food supply chain can work to reduce their environment impact in terms of both food waste and emissions from transports.
This resulted in two frameworks that provide great help in the quest to reduce transport emissions.
"Many logistics systems are extremely large and complex, and it can be hard to know where to begin. The frameworks that I developed give companies tools that enable them to see what factors in their logistics systems affect transport emissions," she says.
Note: this may get a tad thick but there's good news in it.
For this article, we'll use strategy for the overall process which gets food from the farmer to the shelf. The strategy has to be universal across the industry or the industry falls apart, at least for large marketing areas. Tactical solutions are where, for example, Kroger in Cincinnati comes up with some wizard way to unload trucks faster and therefore keep food fresher. That's great for Cincinnati but it's not strategy unless it goes across the industry. The logistical aspect of the solution is how you get it done. For example, if your trucks break down then you will have a tactical problem in the area they serve and the logistical problem is what you will do about it.
SD: Quarter of a million tons of food could be saved a year with better logistics
"The amount of food that is thrown away nowadays is incredible. Most food waste comes from consumers, but the amount lost in the logistics systems comes in a close second. By tweaking the logistics systems, we can ensure that the food maintains good quality and lasts as long as possible when it reaches the store," says Kristina Liljestrand.
This is where Kristina Liljestrand's research comes into play. She holds a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. In recent years, she has figured out how companies in the food supply chain can work to reduce their environment impact in terms of both food waste and emissions from transports.
- SD
Less food wasted equals more mouths fed so all is good.
In the second part of her research, Liljestrand reviewed how the environmental impact from transports in the food logistics system can be reduced. By looking at aspects such as load factor (how well the space in/on pallets, crates and trucks is utilized) and the proportion of intermodal transports (where road transport is combined with rail or sea transport), she identified which shipments are most effective to work with, and the best way of doing this.
This resulted in two frameworks that provide great help in the quest to reduce transport emissions.
"Many logistics systems are extremely large and complex, and it can be hard to know where to begin. The frameworks that I developed give companies tools that enable them to see what factors in their logistics systems affect transport emissions," she says.
- SD
Unknown how many other scientists may be 'competing' with her in this field of research but she seems to be the Big Dawg with substantial experience to back it. She must have looked at the logistics of these systems and thought, yep, I can fix that. Tremendous respect.
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