## 3 Results
### Spatio-Temporal Environmental Impacts in the EU Milk Supply Chain
This suggests that RFID technology could contribute to decreasing dependency on these resources through better supply chain management and waste minimization. Cyprus and Malta show noticeable reductions in freshwater eutrophication and acidification, indicating improvements in resource management efficiency and a decline in harmful emissions as a result of the potential RFID technology implementation. Across key environmental impact categories, such as climate change, particulate matter, and water resource depletion, Greece, Italy, and Portugal show significant reductions. For instance, Greece's continuous decline in climate change impacts highlights that RFID technology could play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions by improving logistics efficiency and minimizing waste. Portugal's improvement in particulate matter emissions demonstrates that better transparency and supply chain optimization through RFID could lead to a reduction in harmful pollutants, ultimately benefiting air quality. Figure 7 presents the potential impacts of RFID tags on the fresh milk supply chain across five eastern EU countries, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Bulgaria, and Romania, from 2015 to 2023. By country, Romania shows significant improvements in freshwater eutrophication and acidification, particularly after 2020, suggesting that RFID technology could improve resource management efficiency and reduce harmful emissions. Lithuania demonstrates marked reductions in photochemical ozone formation, highlighting the potential for improved logistics and minimized waste to reduce environmental burdens. Across key environmental impact categories such as climate change, particulate matter, and water resource depletion, Bulgaria, Estonia, and Latvia show significant reductions. For example, Bulgaria's continuous decline in climate change impacts demonstrates that the hypothetical deployment of RFID technology could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving logistics efficiency and minimizing waste. Estonia's reduction in particulate matter highlights the potential for RFID technology to reduce air pollutants, contributing positively to air quality. Figure 8 illustrates the spatial distribution of total avoided environmental impacts--that is, the benefits--achieved through RFID implementation in the fresh milk supply chain across EU countries from 2015 to 2023. The four impact categories presented--climate change, particulate matter formation, land use, and water resource depletion--were selected due to their critical relevance to dairy production and their substantial contribution to the overall life cycle footprint of milk. These maps visualize cumulative environmental savings over time and offer insight into the regionally uneven distribution of RFID's potential benefits. Notably, the figures reflect absolute reductions (i.e., in tons or cubic meters), which inherently correlate with national production volumes. As such, larger milk-producing countries exhibit higher absolute benefits; however, this does not necessarily indicate greater efficiency or higher relative impact avoidance. Germany records the highest absolute reduction in GHG emissions, with avoided impacts approaching 80,000 tons CO\({}_{2}\)-eq, followed by Finland and France at approximately 60,000 tons CO\({}_{2}\)-eq each. Moderate reductions are observed in the Netherlands, Italy, and Poland (around 30,000 tons CO\({}_{2}\)-eq), while smaller milk-producing nations such as Estonia, Lithuania, and Bulgaria show values under 10,000 tons CO\({}_{2}\)-eq. Reductions in PM2.5-equivalent emissions also vary significantly. Germany again leads with over 81,000 tons PM2.5-eq avoided, followed by France and Finland with over 60,000 tons each. Poland demonstrates moderate reductions (\(\sim\)30,000 tons), while many Eastern and Southeastern European countries display lower or negligible reductions, highlighting either a lower baseline spoilage rate or limited RFID adoption and implementation in those regions.