Carbon Footprint Constrained Profit Maximization of Table Grapes Cold Chain

Abstract

Low-carbon production is one of the dominating issues in the sustainable development of the food industry with high energy consumption, especially in the table grapes cold chain. The aim of this paper is to propose a profit maximization strategy of table grapes cold chain by integrating the carbon footprint to improve the low-carbon production and sustainability of the cold chain system. The carbon footprint was evaluated by life cycle assessment (LCA) in entire cold chain system of table grapes, and the economic order quantity (EOQ) model was used to develop the profit maximization model with minimal carbon footprint and to maintain the optimal balance between stock and cost. The profit optimization performance, the sensitivity performance and the influencing factors of the decay rate, the carbon emission price, and the distance and carbon emission coefficient in refrigerated transport were analyzed according to the profit maximization model and the inventory data in actual cold chain investigated. The sensitivity performance analysis illustrated that the selling price had the highest sensitivity, and the carbon emission coefficient in storage had the lowest sensitivity. The comprehensive analysis results indicated that there is an optimal combination point between the economy and environment in actual cold chain, which not only reduced the carbon emission, but also had minimal impact on the profit in cold chain. The enterprises should integrate the carbon footprint cost into the profit maximization once the carbon emission tax is levied. The proposed strategy of the profit maximization with carbon footprint constraint is also suitable for improving profit maximization of other low-carbon supply chain applications.

Research on Sustainable Development of Mining Goaf Management Based on Economic Models

“…Numerical examples have verified the effectiveness of the model in the aspects of adaptive profit selling price, energy charging and discharging, and sales price factor sensitivity. Xiao et al [27] proposed a profit-maximizing strategy for the cold chain of table grapes by integrating the carbon footprint. To improve the low-carbon production and sustainability of cold chain systems, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to evaluate the carbon footprint of the whole cold chain system of table grapes, and the economic order volume (EOQ) model was used to establish a profit maximization model with the minimum carbon footprint as the goal, so as to maintain the best balance between inventory and cost.…”

Organic Vegetable Cultivation Reduces Resource and Environmental Costs While Increasing Farmers’ Income in the North China Plain

“…A large number of methods have been used to evaluate the environmental consequences and sustainability of the agroecosystems, such as emergy analysis (EMA) [11][12][13], ecosystem service [14], and lifecycle assessment (LCA) [15,16]. Particularly, EMA and LCA are two widely used tools.…”

Energy, Economy, and Environment: A Worldwide Research Update

“…This line of research applies the method of accumulated energy demand to develop and validate indicators of urban environmental sustainability, using the five urban systems in Italy as case studies to analyse their ecological footprint. Other researchers [36] use the life cycle assessment method to propose a strategy to maximise the benefits of the cold chain of table grapes by integrating its carbon footprint. In the same way, the concept of the seasonal footprint avoided by imports has been used to analyse whether proximity and seasonal consumption are consumption patterns that buyers can use to improve the sustainability of the economy [37].…”