Primary food production accounts for about one-third of the total food chain’s carbon footprint. Collectively, the industries which process, manufacture, distribute and sell food account for a further third and consumers are responsible for the remaining third according to Parliament.UK 2012a. Being thus a food and beverage manufacturer you can apply a series of measures that can reduce the environmental impacts of your supplies.
As a food and beverage manufacturer you procure frequently a number of ingredient and supplies, essential for the preparation of the final food products. Thanks to your purchasing influence you can choose 'green' suppliers who can provide you certifications, eco labels or results of sustainability assessments of their organisations.
Furthermore you can always adapt the recipes of your food products by using only environmental sustainable ingredients or replacing gradually (or all together) the unsustainable ones. The decision as to which ingredients should be removed or substituted can be guided by internally or externally formulated rules, standards and/or analyses or case studies successfully implemented by other companies.
And how well are the transport and distribution operations organised? Are you aware of simple measures that can be implemented?
The primary function of efficient transport and logistics operations is the safe and punctual delivery of merchandise from suppliers to the manufacturers and for the manufacturers to the retailers and customers.
The organisation of the distribution chain varies according to the type of the products and the required delivery time. For instance, for some products it is possible to coordinate and match production with actual demand so that you can avoid intermediate storage and distribution.
For the products that cannot be matched to the intermediate storage, manufacturers create centralised hubs to accommodate intermodal transfer and load optimisation. However, a number of good management practices in the warehouses can be implemented in order to avoid further environmental impacts. The first step would be to select a strategic location for the warehouse to minimise delivery distances and dimension them properly to maximise the volume utilisation. Furthermore techniques to improve energy efficiency of warehouses can be further implemented. This is especially prominent for warehouses where cooling and freezing is required.
You can also apply simple measures to improve the environmental performance of the transport operations, such as the packaging use. For instance, you can select the proper packaging that will ensure that the food products will arrive in the correct temperature at their final destination or will not be exposed in high temperatures during transport.
The reverse logistics is another technique that you can apply. You can actually organise properly and prioritise the return routes to send back reusable or refillable packaging or waste/by-products following the good practices above mentioned. An example of a well-managed reverse logistics system comes from the bread bakers who collect unsold bread from the different selling points and gather it in specific centres for further processing.