Marginal abatement cost curves for cold food supply chains – A hybrid adoption of the practice-based and supply-chain practice view

Cold food supply chains (transportation, processing, shipping, warehousing) consume 19 % of the energy use in the food processing industry. Enhancing energy efficiency can have positive effects on both costs and environmental sustainability. A systemic approach, emphasising optimisations along the entire supply chain, is most effective in this regard, rather than optimising individual entities. This study applies a practice-based and supply-chain practice approach to evaluate the effectiveness of intra- and inter-organisational measures to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across different stages and structures of cold supply chains. A hybrid method, combining expert interviews and marginal abatement cost curves (MACCs), was used to identify practices and quantify the GHG emission reduction potential and costs for two selected cold supply chains – fruit & vegetables and dairy products – in the Swiss food industry. The study identified 24 green practices. Findings reveal a 50–70 % GHG emission reduction potential for the fruit and vegetable supply chain and 16–19 % for the dairy supply chain. Practices in refrigerated production and warehousing are generally cost-effective, while practices in refrigerated transport are typically less cost-effective owing to high investment costs in alternative technologies. • Identification of 24 green practices for two distinct Swiss food cold supply chains. • Green practices quantified by GHG emissions and costs via marginal abatement cost curves. • The effectiveness of GHG abatement levers depends on the cold supply chain structure and stage. • 8–28 % of supply chain emissions can be reduced cost-effectively.