## 3 Results
### Spatio-Temporal Environmental Impacts in the EU Milk Supply Chain
For example, France's continuous decline in climate change impacts suggests that reducing milk loss and improving logistics efficiency through the hypothetical deployment of RFID technology can help significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, Austria's improvements in acidification and particulate matter categories indicate that enhancing supply chain transparency and reducing losses could contribute to lowering pollutant emissions, positively impacting air quality and soil health. Figure 5 presents the potential impacts of RFID tags on the fresh milk supply chain across six central EU countries, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, and Slovakia, from 2015 to 2023. Overall, the general trend indicates a consistent decline in several environmental impact categories, including climate change, water resource depletion, and acidification. Particularly, Poland shows significant year-over-year reductions in climate change and water resource depletion impacts. This suggests that the hypothetical deployment of RFID technology could effectively reduce environmental burdens by minimizing waste and optimizing supply chain processes, resulting in positive environmental outcomes. The color coding, ranging from pink in 2015 to light pink in 2023, highlights the year-to-year variations in environmental impacts. For instance, from 2016 to 2019, categories such as photochemical ozone formation and marine eutrophication exhibit fluctuations across different countries, but a marked overall reduction is observed from 2020 onwards. This consistent decline suggests that introducing RFID technology could help manage environmental burdens effectively, regardless of the variations in regional policies. By countries, Poland demonstrates notable improvements in mineral, fossil, and renewable resource depletion, particularly after 2020. This trend reflects the potential of RFID technology to reduce dependency on these resources through enhanced supply chain management. Slovenia shows improvements in terrestrial eutrophication and particulate matter, especially since 2019, indicating that RFID deployment could help mitigate emissions and reduce pollutants. The Czech Republic displays a steady reduction in climate change impacts, suggesting that optimizing logistics and minimizing milk waste through RFID technology could have a positive effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The missing data for the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, and Slovakia between 2015 and 2017 presents some limitations in fully understanding the trends during this period. However, from 2018 onwards, these countries generally show reductions in multiple environmental categories. Notably, Hungary exhibits a significant decrease in acidification and freshwater eutrophication, indicating that RFID technology could improve supply chain efficiency by reducing resource consumption and minimizing waste. Across key environmental impact categories, such as climate change, particulate matter, acidification, and water resource depletion, Croatia, Hungary, and Poland exhibit significant reductions. For example, Hungary's decline in acidification impacts suggests that, by reducing milk waste and optimizing supply chain operations, RFID technology could contribute to lower emissions of acidifying substances. Slovenia's reduction in particulate matter further underscores the potential for RFID technology to enhance supply chain transparency, reduce inefficiencies, and ultimately minimize emissions, thus contributing positively to air quality. Figure 6 illustrates the potential impacts of RFID tags on the fresh milk supply chain across five southern EU countries--Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Malta, and Portugal--from 2015 to 2023, excluding Spain. Overall, the trend shows a steady reduction in several environmental impact categories, including climate change, water resource depletion, and  
land use. By countries, Italy demonstrates a significant reduction in mineral, fossil, and renewable resource depletion, particularly after 2020.