Towards A More Sustainable Future? Simulating the Environmental Impact of Online and Offline Grocery Supply Chains

Abstract

The negative effects of traffic, such as air quality problems and road congestion, put a strain on the infrastructure of cities and high-populated areas. A potential measure to reduce these negative effects are grocery home deliveries (e-grocery), which can bundle driving activities and, hence, result in decreased traffic and related emission outputs. Several studies have investigated the potential impact of e-grocery on traffic in various last-mile contexts. However, no holistic view on the sustainability of e-grocery across the entire supply chain has yet been proposed. Therefore, this paper presents an agent-based simulation to assess the impact of the e-grocery supply chain compared to the stationary one in terms of mileage and different emission outputs. The simulation shows that a high e-grocery utilization rate can aid in decreasing total driving distances by up to 255 % relative to the optimal value as well as CO 2 emissions by up to 50 %