Improving Cold Chain Energy Efficiency in the food industry

The refrigeration of food during transport, processing and storage makes energy consumption in the supply chain particularly high. This also presents an opportunity to increase energy efficiency. In this context, an analysis that not only considers a single company, but the entire supply chain, is promising. The project ICCEE (“Improving Cold Chain Energy Efficiency”) aims to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the food industry increase their energy efficiency. After energy audits of their supply chains, ICCEE will aid SMEs in making their cold chains more efficient.

The research project designed a program to analyse energy efficiency potential, which will facilitate decision-making at various levels of the organisation. The research project also created and implemented a capacity-building program targeted at SME employees along with other, relevant stakeholders in the sector who support cultural change when it comes to energy. The program evaluated the feasibility of energy efficiency measures, taking into account the economic, environmental and social impact along the entire life cycle and supply chain. The research project addressed benefits not related to energy as well as behavioural aspects and prepared financing recommendations for SMEs. In addition, the results of the research project offered policy makers a solid foundation for sector-specific policy.

adelphi research collected the required data along the entire supply chain for the relevant sub-sectors of the food industry for all countries involved in the project. Using this data as a basis, the research institute evaluated the developed program and recorded the corresponding results in an internal interim report. adelphi research also designed and held workshops as part of the project’s capacity-building program.