Reduction of carbon footprint in UK food retail chains

Food supply is a major part of world’s economy. As World population is ever increasing, need for food is also increasing. However, to have sustainable food supply it is essential to have reduced carbon footprint in food sourcing, food production and also food distribution. In order to achieve this food sustainability all supply chain players need to come together to adopt a feasible approach to reduce carbon footprint (Ramanathan et al., 2014). UK food sector has started its journey towards sustainable food supply in the past decade. Retail stores in United Kingdom sell both home grown food and World food. Leading retailers such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons encourage fair-trade products to boost ethical sourcing. There are also other sustainability initiates such as free-range food and home grown local food in retail food sector.

The home grown local food helps to avoid carbon footprint directly by reducing ‘food miles’. But due to shortage of food supply, UK is also relying on import of food from other countries. While importing food from outside the UK, it is difficult for the UK retailers to control carbon footprint from global suppliers. Although the UK retail stores take careful measures to maintain sustainability through their suppliers, it is not possible for them to have complete control. Several supply chain management practices such as Vendor Managed Inventory and Collaborative Planning Forecasting and Replenishment have been discussed in the literature to improve production and timely replenishment (Sari, 2008). But to incorporate the idea of sustainability in formal supply chains, it is essential to revise the existing business models especially to food supply chains.

New research is needed to incorporate sustainable practices that can enhance food supply chain sustainability with reduced carbon footprint through supply chain collaboration. Research students ready to work in the area of sustainable food supply chain and supply chain collaborations using case studies and survey analysis are welcome to apply. Some specific (but not exhaustive) topics include:

• Supply chain collaboration for sustainability such as avoiding food waste and distribution of food
• Role of food traceability in sustainability
• Role of short food supply chains in local and global food sustainability
• Reducing carbon footprint in nations’ food supply chains (any country)
• Carbon labelling: A new way to maintain sustainability