Deliver me from waste : impacts of e-commerce on food supply chain energy use
Creators: name: Gee, Isabella Marie
name: 0000-0002-8778-6733
Publisher: name: The University of Texas at Austin
Year: 2019
Subjects: Meal-kit
Grocery
Delivery
Energy
E-commerce
Last-mile
Packaging
Food

description: An increasing portion of food is purchased online through e-commerce services such as meal-kit and grocery delivery. As these services change the way food is purchased and distributed, they also impact how energy is used along the food supply chain. Impacts will differ based on type of service, location, and consumer habits. In particular, meal-kit and grocery delivery services might impact consumer food waste, packaging waste, and energy consumption for transportation related to deliveries. This research attempts to assess the potential impact of food delivery services to energy use along the entire food supply chain, accounting for food loss and waste. An analytical model was developed to compare the energy requirements of meal-kit delivery systems to conventional grocery shopping. Meal-kit services can reduce food waste because the kits pre-portion ingredients for each recipe, thereby saving energy. However, the supply chain and packaging requirements of meal-kit delivery are different than for grocery stores, potentially offsetting any reduction of food waste. Furthermore, if meal-kit delivery replaces some trips to the grocery store, then transportation-related savings might be significant. Mass and energy balances were used to assess embedded energy in both pathways. The model was illustrated under representative operating conditions for a consumer in Austin, Texas using Monte Carlo simulation. Both per-meal and per-week, a meal-kit delivery service meal is more energy intensive than procuring the same meal from conventional grocery stores primarily due to single-use packaging. Consumer transportation to the grocery store was also found to be particularly energy intensive. Results also indicated that there might be a greater potential to reduce energy use when consumers live further from a grocery store. A second analytical model was developed to compare the energy requirements of grocery delivery services to grocery shopping. Two types of grocery delivery services were considered: decentralized (store-centric) and centralized (warehouse-centric). The supply chains for both store- and warehouse-centric grocery delivery services also differ from conventional grocery shopping, and might offset changes in food waste. Store-centric grocery delivery services primarily affect last-mile transportation by replacing a personal trip with a delivery, though they might be able to reduce energy by bundling multiple orders together in one trip. Warehouse-centric grocery delivery services might have a greater impact on energy use because they set up their own separate supply chain with primary fulfillment centers and delivery vehicles. Mass and energy balances were used to assess embedded energy per-week in both pathways. The model was illustrated under two consumer case studies using Monte Carlo simulation. In both cases, the warehouse-centric grocery delivery service was the least energy intensive. The store-centric grocery delivery service showed slight energy savings. Results suggest that consumer transportation and retail energy use are the two major contributing factors to relative energy intensity between scenarios. Results also indicated that grocery delivery services might be able to save more energy for consumers that live further away from a grocery store. For all food purchase pathways analyzed, consumer last-mile transportation (the last leg of the supply chain before food reaches a consumer) was found to be particularly energy intensive. Additionally, results suggested that food delivery services might be able to save more energy for rural consumers. To build off of these findings, a hybrid agent-based and discrete-event simulation modelling framework was developed to capture the last-mile transportation energy use of food delivery services for rural consumers. The framework operates in a geographic information system (GIS) space and tracks per-trip energy use of a delivery van and delivery car operating in a sample neighborhood in west Austin, TX. A sensitivity analysis was performed to gauge the impact of vehicle speed and number of orders fulfilled on per-trip energy use. In general, the delivery van trip was always more energy intensive than the delivery car over the range of values studied. However, results indicated that there is a theoretical threshold based on consumer demand and density that dictates when van- or car-based delivery is energetically preferable. Taken together, this body of work provides methods for evaluating the farm-to-fork energy impacts of food delivery services, with particular attention to last-mile transportation.