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

Abstract

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.