How Logistics Decisions Affect the Environmental Sustainability of Modern Food Supply Chains. A Case Study from an Italian large‐scale retailer

Measuring the carbon emissions associated with the modern agrofood supply chains is a best practice to find out solutions or operations improvements against climate change. Given the rapid growth of global population and the vulnerability of societies to even modest levels of climate change, wide benefits exist from reducing carbon emissions associated with the production and the distribution of food worldwide. The goal of this chapter is to assess the environmental impacts associated with the food supply chain of an Italian large‐scale retailer, considering two alternative configurations of the logistics and distribution network. The results of the analysis illustrate the benefits of locating three distribution centres, respectively for frozen, fresh and dry products, between the suppliers and the regional warehouses that supply the markets. The chapter illustrates how the establishment of these intermediate hubs allows the retailer to reduce the carbon emission from distribution activities to 27% of what they originally were, coupling the cost reduction and the service level improvement with relevant environmental savings.