Keeping your cool

Robert Arendal, Chairman of the Cool Chain Association, explains the potential environmental benefits of an efficient supply chain.

During the last few years, the international media has continuously directed our attention towards global warming. Although man-made contribution to the climate change is only a small part of the total negative impact on the world’s climate, we have been alerted to the importance of finding solutions in order to reverse the global temperature increase.

Consequently, we need to change our way of life and find ways to cut both the CO2 emission, greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint and the pollution that we inflict on our world. But getting to that conclusion was the easy part, how to go about cutting CO2 and GHG emission is far more difficult. Partly because it will severely change our way of life while at the same time we are far from sure of the results from the proposed changes.

Needless to say the worlds scientific view is highly respected and if anyone will be able to guide us towards the right undertakings to reverse global warming surly they are. Yet even scientists do not always agree on the methods of how to tackle this gigantic task. And complicating this undertaking is that in order to succeed, it must be a global effort. On the other hand, this is no excuse not to move ahead and take the necessary actions and measures to start the road towards cutting pollution and improving the environment. The present KYOTO convention did not get us very far, because part of the western world did not join nor even wholeheartedly support the KYOTO convention.

Furthermore it can be debated that the present KYOTO convention includes the right ingredients and methods to reach the targeted results, at least in a successful and economical way. Instead however, many scientists say that we should spend the allocated funds on battling the world’s poverty or the supply of water and food to those in true need, not to mention human health issues in many parts of the world; the list of which is almost endless. Yet we are told that if we do not undertake serious action to combat the global warming, the other urgent issues mentioned above might have little effect anyhow, as the planet’s climate shall make it difficult for humanity to survive at all. This might sound like a doomsday vision, yet it is not an impossible scenario.

Action
There is no doubt that we must take serious action to combat global warming while at the same time raise the quality of life for a large part of the world’s underprivileged population. The action in both categories is necessary to bring reasonable fast results within affordable economic and socially acceptable terms. And it must be universal, which is the real challenge.

To replace our present dependence on fossil fuel as our major supplier of energy, we need to develop new technologies for sustainable energy from sun, wind, hydro, nuclear and other forms of energy supply, mainly for electricity. We will also need to develop biofuels and other forms of sustainable energy for part of our transport needs. All must be zero CO2 emission or at least an emission that can be ‘absorbed’ or neutralised by nature itself, and non-polluting. I am extremely optimistic that we shall find the solutions.

But the short supply of food and water is another matter. Firstly, they go hand in hand – no food without water. While two thirds of our planet is water fresh water is not in unlimited supply. Although we can generate fresh water from salt water, we need to better utilise the limited supply of fresh water, and we have to assure that the entire world population shall have access to fresh water. Not only for survival, but also to grow or make food; another necessity for survival.

Nature is very, very generous. But nature also has its limits. While we can improve the technique on how to grow crops, there shall be limits for ‘acceptable’ levels of the use of fertilisers; the soil cannot accept endless amount of fertilisers and we shall be polluting ground water that in turn shall contaminate our fresh water and our health.

But as certain food supplies are in abundance, others are becoming scarce and food prices rise. As a consequence, we shall need to develop new ways to meet the ever-increasing demand for food, but especially we shall require better use and management of our present food resources. And we shall have to cut the waste of food. In the developed world we might waste up to 30 percent of food we have or produced, maybe even more. A good part of that waste is in the supply chain. We have grown, produced and harvested the food, but we have wasted it in transporting and delivering it to consumers. And while we have insufficient information of the waste in the non-developed parts of the world, partly because they do not even have sufficient food supply, we can – and must – do much better in taking care of the food we have in our hands.

Needless to say that we have today new and improved methods on how to handle and transport fresh, frozen, canned and dried food; much better handling and transporting than we ever had before. But if the records prove that we waste up to 30% in handling and transportation, we clearly have a challenge to improve the end results – and reduce that waste. To do so, we need to better manage the food supply chain; for fresh products that includes the ‘unbroken cool chain’. To achieve such improvements is far from an impossible task, but it needs that we set our mind to achieve the improvements we require.

Cool supply chain
That was the reason from developing the Cool Chain Quality Indicator (CCQIs), a master table for improving the quality of handling and transporting perishable and temperature sensitive products (PTSP). The CCQIs, developed in co-operation between the Cool Chain Association and Germanischer Lloyds, is an intelligent solution to improve the quality of fresh products and as such, is a recognised solution to improve shelf-life, food quality, cut waste and in general achieving an unbroken cool chain. The Cool Chain Association, a non-profit association working in co-operation with the World Health Organisation as well as other institutions, is composed of a membership from a wide selection of companies on a global basis, each involved in the food chain in one way or the other. The membership of the CCA range from airlines, forwarders, trucking and handling companies to manufactures of equipment as well as many other sections of the PTSP industry.

Furthermore, supermarkets and retailers have expressed interest in adopting the CCQIs to further improve their local distribution and handling of fresh products in order to meet increasing customer demand for quality.

In the long-term perspective, the CCA objective is to make the CCQIs a global standard that aims to cut waste in the food supply chain, reduce the CO2 emission from the PTSP industry and improve the quality of distribution as well as the supply of fresh food.

Kyoto Protocol

Adopted on 11 December 1997 by the 3rd Conference of the Parties, The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change. As of May 2008. 182 parties have ratified the protocol. Of these, 36 developed countries are required to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to levels specified for each of them in the treaty. The 137 developing countries have no obligation beyond monitoring and reporting emissions.

The protocol established the following principles:

• It is underwritten by governments and governed by global legalisation enacted under the UN’s aegis
• Governments are separated by two general categories: developed countries, referred to as Annex 1 countries (who accept reduction obligations and submit an annual greenhouse gas inventory), and developing countries, referred to as Non-Annex 1 countries (who have no reduction obligations)
• Any Annex 1 country that fails to meet its obligation will be penalised by having to submit 1.3 emission allowances in a second commitment period for every ton of GHG emissions they exceed their cap
• As of January 2008, and running through to 2012, Annex 1 countries have to reduce their GHG emissions by a collective average of 5% below their 1990 levels
• ‘Flexible mechanisms’ allow Annex 1 countries to meet their GHG emission limitation by purchasing GHG emission reductions from elsewhere