Optimising economic, environmental, and social objectives: a goal-programming approach in the food sector

The business-decision environment is increasingly complicated by the emergence of competing economic, environmental, and social goals, a notion typified by the current pressures of global economic instability and climate-change targets. Trade-offs are often unclear and contributions by different actors and stakeholders in the supply chain may be unequal but, due to the interdependencies between businesses and stakeholders in relation to total environmental or social impact, a whole chain, simultaneous, and strategic approach is required. After a review of relevant literature and the identification of knowledge gaps, the author introduces and illustrates the use of goal programming as a technique that could facilitate this approach and uses real case evidence for alternative food supply chain strategies, at local, regional, and national levels. It is shown that the method can simplify a complex simultaneous decision situation into a useful and constructive decision and planning framework. Results show how a priori beliefs may be challenged and how operational and resource efficiency could be improved through the use of such a model, which enables a broad stakeholder appreciation and the opportunity to explore and test new environmental or social challenges

Evaluating sustainability in the UK fast food supply chain: Dimensions, Awareness and Practice

Purpose - This paper investigates the level of concern and practice of sustainable management in the fast food supply chain in the North of England, targeting a business population with cultural, social and economic diversity. Methodology – A questionnaire using Likert Scoring recorded variations in current practice and attitudes towards sustainable business. A two-stage Cluster Analysis was conducted to analyse the multi-attribute ordinal data obtained from the questionnaire. Findings - Significant differences were found among clusters of Fast food businesses in terms of their sustainability concern and practice, which is of interest to policy makers, consumers and supply chain partners. Medium-sized fast food dealers emerge with high environmental and social concern, but poor practice; larger retailers and fast food chains appear to have both fair social and environmental awareness and practice; and there is a cluster of small takeaway-specific outlets that have particularly low levels of knowledge of sustainability or sustainable practices. Market failure is prevalent amongst these businesses and without regulation this represents a possible threat to the sector. Research limitations – Reliance on stated rather than revealed preferences and the regional focus of the study may limit the implications of this analysis but it is a major step forward in understanding what has in the past been a very difficult sector to investigate due to data paucity. Practical implications - Fast food is a sector with a lack of transparency which has attracted little academic attention to date, due to the difficulties of empirical analysis rather than lack of interest in a key food consumption sector. The message for the sector is to monitor its act, across all business types or face regulatory and policy intervention. Originality - The research conducts a three-dimensional sustainability analysis of fast food supply chains to investigate the differences and trade-offs between different sustainability dimensions

Assessment of key sustainability indicators in a UK fast food supply chain: a life cycle perspective

The purpose of this article is to investigate the understanding of businesses and end consumers of key sustainability measures in the UK fast food Supply Chain. A quantitative method was used in which two sets of well-structured questionnaires were designed separately for fast food businesses and end consumers. The data analysis was conducted through “cluster analysis”. It was found that social responsibility was scored as the most important fast food sustainability concern for businesses, whilst the end consumers were found to be more concern about environmental impact of fast food industry. However, no statistical difference was found between fast food businesses and end consumer views. This research was carried out in north of England, where may have different proportion of cultural, social and economical diversity. The collected data from fast food businesses was also not scattered evenly, as there were more responds from smaller fast food firms than food manufacturers and processers. More research attention is needed in this field in which there are various issues and challenges to promote a lean and green food supply chain. This research could partly investigate these challenges including the different trade-offs between social, environmental and economic measures of sustainability in a specific food supply chain. This article conducts a research investigation in three dimensional sustainability of fast food supply chain, which includes all types of businesses in this sector to investigate the differences between end consumers and businesses to promote lean and green fast food supply chain

The development of an integrated modelling system to support decisions on organic farms

This paper was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR). An Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS) is developed which synthesises current understanding of organic farming by means of a multiple objective framework incorporating GIS, biophysical models and socio-economic models of the farming goals. The IDSS uses a multitiered concept of a farming system as a collection of micro-enterprises at the field level, with individual resource endowments, objectives and activities. Farm-level decision drivers trickle down to affect the micro-level field enterprise selection. Biophysical models describe typical forage, cereal, root and legume output and a user-friendly interfaces permits easy access and output display via a GIS. A prototype of the IDSS framework, being developed as a part of the SAC organic research programme is presented

An Economic Assessment of the Costs and Benefits of Natura 2000 Sites in Scotland

In accordance with the European Commission "Habitats Directive" (Directive 92/43/EEC) and the "Birds Directive" (Directive 79/409/EEC), Scotland must contribute to the development of a UK network of protected areas that represent the most important wildlife sites in the European Union, known as the Natura 2000 (N2K) network. This network is made up of Special Protection Areas (SPAs) classified under the Birds Directive and of Special Areas of Conservation (SACs) under the Habitats Directive. In Scotland, by 31/12/02, 355 N2K sites had been identified, comprising 223 candidate SACs (cSACs) and 132 SPAs, accounting for 9.3% of Scotland's land surface. As 55 sites are both cSACs and SPAs, there are actually 300 separate individual N2K sites

The application of ‘just in time’ to reverse logistics: a feasibility study from the UK multiple retail sector

Purpose: The purpose of the research is to assess the operational feasibility of applying just in time (JIT) practices to a UK multiple retailers’ reverse logistics (RL) function for waste packaging materials, whilst also assessing possible benefits which may be derived from such an application. Research Approach: The research adopts an embedded case study approach, which included multiple analyses at different nodes of the retail and distribution operational units within the organisation. Interviews were undertaken which allowed for the creation of a narrative outlining the organisation’s operating environments and RL function dynamics, this was then compared to key JIT success factors. Findings: At the functional level there are a number of attributes within the case organisation which would positively influence the adoption of JIT processes, given their relationship with critical success factors outlined within the literature. It is also observed that where negative relationships do exist, they are mainly attitudinal in nature and thus through process reengineering and appropriate training could be averted. On balance the findings indicate that with minimal restructuring and investment the case organisation would be capable of supporting JIT processes. Possible implications of a successful JIT implementation are also discussed. These suggest that although duplicate movement within the network may occur, there would also be efficiency increases in both forward and reverse operations allowing for significant savings. Practical Impact: A new process model is proposed for the case organisations forward and reverse operations which incorporates JITP elements into the RL function. This creates a new just in time reverse logistics (JITRL) environment where collection activities are removed from forward operations, resulting in possible cost savings for the overall distribution network derived from increased efficiencies and capital expenditure. Originality: The research presented provides a unique and novel approach to the application of JIT systems, not only showing that it is possible in operational contexts, but also that JITRL systems may offer significant benefits beyond this organisation, to distribution networks in operations within a similar environment to that of the case organisation

Personality traits and environmental choices: On the search for understanding

In this paper we hypothesize that individuals will choose among alternative courses of action for power generation from wind farms according to their personality profiles. Through a factor analysis we found that certain characteristics of personality do indeed have an effect on environmental choice. The study involves an extensive survey based on the Big Five Traits model to find a pattern of choice that will help to better understand environmental decisions and be useful for policy makers to identify target groups and preview reactions to different courses of action. The research is potentially useful for the better preparation and design of publicity material, awareness raising campaigns and information provision for complex or unpopular policies affecting the environment or in environmental education in general. This research is especially interested in shedding some light on how personality is involved in the processes of environmental decision making, despite the limitations of the present study