Instruments for food waste monitoring and measurement at firm level across the distribution system

The firms of food supply chain might make impactful decisions for food waste prevention and management, yet few of them have information necessary for this aim, particularly in the distribution system. Firm-level monitoring & measurement of food waste is onerous and infrequent, in spite of corporate reporting standards (GRI’s 306). Food waste indicators, guidelines, national statistics have been established at country level, but they are too aggregated to support corporate strategies and operations (Schaltegger et al., Sustain Dev 2017). Case studies shed light on adoption barriers and drivers (Annosi et al., Ind Market Manag 2021), but they could not be externally valid given the high heterogeneity of distribution firms (by stage, size, channel, product group, waste type, location). The development of innovative dashboards and data warehouse and other technological and management instruments that allow firms to monitor and measure regularly and efficiently food waste is still an open question and understudied topic (Ciccullo et al., Resour Conserv Recycl 2021).

The research  project  aims  to  enhance  knowledge  on  monitoring  and  measurement of activable instruments at firm level, through the following activities.

• To develop a classification of activities and firm groups (food distribution system), and the related food waste constructs.
• To   review   management   &   engineering   literature   on   firm-level   monitoring   and measurement solutions, and to select activable ones.
• To develop a protocol & questionnaire for collecting primary data on instruments and food waste from Italian distributors.
• To conduct multiple case studies and to refine the protocol & questionnaire.
• To collect primary data from case studies and from a large sample survey.
• To analyze data, and to estimate indicators on the adoption of measurement instruments and food waste generation and management for different groups of distribution firms, and - using the data warehouse & analysis tools - for the broader food system.
• To validate results through focus groups or workshops.
   

• Classification that formalizes the food distribution system (groups of distribution firms).
• Food waste constructs relevant for food distribution.
• Updated literature survey on firm-level monitoring and measurement instruments.
• Proposal of a map of instruments activable  by  the different groups of distribution firms.
• Proposal of firm-level indicators of instruments adoption and food waste generation and management.
• Proposal of a corporate protocol for collecting firm-level data and computing indicators on food waste generation and management across different groups of firms.
• Insights on the improvement of data warehouse and data analysis tools (WP2_3.3) through the analysis of selected use cases.
• Validated estimates of indicators across the different firm groups.