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Online grocery shopping has been on the rise, with perishable food items emerging as one of the key components driving growth. A recent report shows that a large percentage of consumers who have embraced online grocery shopping are making weekly orders for perishable items, including fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, bread and other bakery items.
The trend in online perishable food sales poses a unique and complex logistical challenge. To avoid spoilage, these items must be stored and transported at controlled temperatures, while also meeting strict delivery timeframes.
Such demands can leave last-mile logistics companies with a difficult choice between efficiency and sustainability, but there are options that allow both to be achieved. Following are steps that can help companies to make progress on the path to sustainable perishable logistics.
Deploy technology to enhance efficiency in temperature control. The refrigeration necessary for keeping perishable foods fresh has the potential to impact the environment in two ways. The first involves hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are the primary refrigerants used in cooling systems. Breakdowns in refrigeration equipment can cause HFCs to be released into the atmosphere.
HFCs are a dangerous greenhouse gas. While they only represent a small portion of greenhouse gas emissions — approximately 2% by some estimates — their impact on global warming is believed to be thousands of times higher than that of carbon dioxide. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced plans to significantly cut back on the use of HFCs for refrigeration purposes.
Opting for equipment using alternative refrigerants is one step toward making perishable food logistics more sustainable. Refrigeration systems that use ammonia, which has virtually no impact on the environment if released into the air, are considered to be much safer for the environment than systems using HFCs.
Emissions resulting from energy production are another sustainability factor that must be addressed, as perishable logistics require products to be processed in refrigerated warehouses and transported in refrigerated vehicles, all of which require higher-than-average energy draws. Efforts to enhance the efficiency of refrigeration systems can dramatically decrease environmental impacts.
Optimizing insulation in warehouses and delivery vehicles can improve energy efficiency in perishable logistics, along with adjusting temperatures based on a vehicle’s contents. Technological innovations such as variable speed compressors can provide optimal cooling with minimal energy use.
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