Apple supply chain sustainability evaluation method

Abstract

The invention belongs to the field of life cycle environmental impact evaluation and economic benefit analysis, and particularly relates to an apple supply chain sustainability evaluation method. And carrying out sustainable evaluation on the apple supply chain by using a comprehensive method of life cycle environmental influence and cost analysis. Firstly, an operation mode of a typical Apple supply chain is determined, and a system boundary of the supply chain is delimited; then collecting material, resource and energy consumption data required to be input in each part stage of the apple supply chain, establishing an LCA evaluation model by using Gabi 10.8 software, and quantitatively calculating environmental influence by using a CML 2001 model; converting the environmental influence into environmental cost through calculation, bringing the environmental cost into economic benefit analysis, and constructing an economic and environmental integrated evaluation index system; and finally performing result analysis according to the indexes. The method can provide reference for the construction of the apple supply chain in the future, and further promotes the sustainable development of the agricultural supply chain.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention belongs to the field of life cycle assessment and economic benefit analysis, and specifically relates to a method for evaluating the sustainability of an apple supply chain. Background Art

[0002] The sustainable development of the apple supply chain includes not only improving environmental impact, but also improving economic benefits and achieving a balance between economic benefits and environmental protection. Understanding the planting origin, supply and demand relationship and inventory management of the apple supply chain is the premise for finding the sustainable development of the supply chain. Specifically, apple planting origins are divided into commercial orchards and smallholder orchards according to the ownership of the land where they grow. Commercial orchards are operated by enterprises or cooperatives, and high apple yields are achieved through large-scale and modern planting management techniques. At present, smallholder orchards are the main apple production model (nearly 90%), mainly family-run, with small planting scales and traditional production methods. The supply and demand relationship in the supply chain includes the supply capacity of apples and the market demand for apple products (concentrated juice, fresh apples and dried apples); inventory management refers to the inventory costs generated by apple reserves and the environmental impact caused by energy consumption.

[0003] Summarizing the current methods related to the study of supply chain environmental impacts, it is found that the demarcation of supply chain system boundaries, the selection of raw materials and product scenarios will lead to differences in the contribution of each stage to the environmental impact. Therefore, covering a comprehensive system boundary is crucial to accurately evaluate the environmental impact of the supply chain and identify hotspots. In addition, there are few studies on Apple's supply chain, the supply chain chain is simple, the stages are incomplete, and there is a lack of analysis of economic benefits. Therefore, a comprehensive method is needed to conduct a comprehensive and targeted sustainability assessment of Apple's supply chain from a more comprehensive system perspective. Summary of the invention

[0004] To solve the above problems, the present invention proposes a comprehensive evaluation method combining life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCC), combining the life cycle concept and potential environmental impact analysis method in the life cycle assessment method with actual economic benefits, establishing an LCA-LCC comprehensive evaluation index system, conducting sustainability assessment on a typical apple supply chain, and promoting the sustainable development of apple and related agricultural industry chains.

[0005] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

[0006] A method for evaluating the sustainability of Apple's supply chain, the steps are as follows:

[0007] (1) Determination of objectives and scope: The system boundaries are determined based on the actual operation of the apple supply chain. The system consists of four parts: apple planting (commercial orchards, smallholder orchards), apple storage, apple processing and packaging, and transportation. It is specifically divided into seven stages: commercial orchard planting stage, smallholder orchard planting stage, cold storage stage, juice processing stage, fresh apple packaging stage, dried fruit processing stage, and transportation stage.

[0008] (2) Inventory analysis: Based on the 1 ton of Red Fuji apples stored in cold storage during a production cycle (1 year), the input and output of other stages are converted according to the proportion of functional units. The input and output data of each part of the supply chain are collected, sorted and summarized.

[0009] (3) Environmental impact assessment: The Gabi 10.8 software was used to construct an LCA environmental impact model of a typical apple supply chain. The characterization results were quantified using the CML 2001 model to calculate the environmental impacts of various environmental indicators, including abiotic depletion potential (elements) (ADPe), abiotic depletion potential (fossil) (ADPf), acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential (FAETP), global warming potential (GWP), human toxicity potential (HTP), marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential (MAETP), ozone depletion potential (ODP), and terrestrial ecotoxicity potential (TETP).

[0010] (4) Cost classification: Life cycle costs can be classified according to different standards. For the purpose of explanation, they can be divided into two categories: conventional costs (C r ) and environmental costs (C e ).

[0011] Conventional cost is the financial cost in the actual operation of the supply chain, and the calculation method is shown in the following formula (1).

[0012]

[0013] Among them, C r is the total regular cost of Apple products; C ri is the normal cost of the product in the i-th stage of the supply chain; m is the number of life cycle stages divided.

[0014] Policy makers believe that environmental costs are typical intangible costs that cannot be accurately and quantitatively expressed. The present invention uses an analysis method based on potential environmental impacts and social willingness to pay (WTP) theory. Social willingness to pay refers to the public's willingness to pay money to reduce or avoid certain types of environmental impacts. The present invention calculates and selects the monetary factors of the six main environmental impact categories, and the characterization results of the LCA model are also used as input parameters. The environmental cost formula (2) is as follows:

[0015]

[0016] Among them, C e is the total environmental cost of Apple products; C eij is the jth type of environmental cost of the product in the i-th stage of the supply chain; m is the number of life cycle stages divided; n is the number of environmental cost types divided at a certain stage.

[0017] (5) Economic indicators: In terms of economy, the total economic benefit is used as the economic indicator. The present invention obtains the average market price of three apple products, classifies the benefits into the fresh fruit packaging stage, the dried fruit processing stage, and the juice processing stage of the supply chain, and uses formula (3) to calculate the total economic benefit that the supply chain can bring.

[0018]

[0019] Among them, E r is the total economic benefit of the supply chain, P i is the average market price of an apple product produced in the i-th stage of the supply chain (when i ≥ 4, P i Start taking value); N i is the weight of an Apple product produced at stage i of the supply chain.

[0020] In terms of environment, total environmental cost is used as the environmental indicator.

[0021] Beneficial effects of the present invention:

[0022] (1) The present invention conducts a life cycle environmental impact assessment and cost analysis on a typical apple supply chain, constructs a complete supply chain model from apple planting, storage, processing to transportation, quantitatively analyzes the environmental impact of each stage of the apple supply chain, establishes a new indicator system related to the environment and economy, and evaluates the sustainability of the apple supply chain.

[0023] (2) Through the sustainability assessment of the apple supply chain, the environmental and economic hotspots at each stage are identified, and the environmental impact of the supply chain is further reduced in a targeted manner, and the economic development and production efficiency of the supply chain are improved. This method can provide a reference for the research of other agricultural product supply chains and provide a scientific basis, which will help improve the competitiveness and sustainable development capabilities of the apple industry. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Figure 1 It is the technical roadmap of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The specific implementation of the present invention is further explained in combination with the technical scheme and the accompanying drawings.

[0026] The technical route of the present invention is as follows Figure 1 As shown in the figure, a typical apple supply chain in operation in a certain city is used as a case study area. The current operation mode is as follows: commodity orchards supply 2,500,000 kg of apples to cold storage, provide 625,000 kg of inferior fruit to juice processing enterprises, and small farmers' orchards supply 500,000 kg of high-quality fruit to cold storage. At this time, the refrigerated apples are fully loaded. After refrigeration, about 2,700,000 kg of apples are packaged for fresh consumption, and 300,000 kg of apples are used for dried fruit processing.

[0027] The main production activities of apple planting are fertilization, weeding, pest control, irrigation, pruning, fruit and vegetable, bagging, bag removal, apple harvesting, etc. The planting density of commercial orchards is 1667 trees / ha, and the annual output can reach more than 2000t. The planting density of smallholder orchards is about 1050 trees / ha. After the apples are picked, they are initially screened for superior and inferior fruits in the orchard (the ratio is about 4:1), and the high-quality apples that meet the quality standards are transported to the cold storage for storage. The maximum storage capacity of the cold storage workshop in the apple storage part is 5000t, of which about 3000t is used to store the selected high-quality fruits, with a set temperature of -1℃, a humidity of 87%, and Freon refrigeration. The apple processing and packaging part includes the juice processing stage, the fresh apple packaging stage, and the dried fruit processing stage. Among them: the apples required for the juice processing stage are only the inferior fruits screened from the commercial orchards, and the processed product is apple concentrated juice concentrate, with a ratio of apple raw materials to concentrated juice of 7:1. Ninety percent of the apples after refrigerated storage are fresh fruits that need to be packaged and sold, and the rest are processed into dried fruits. Apples in the fresh fruit packaging stage are manually selected, covered with nets, and packed into packaging cartons. The process of dried fruit processing is vacuum low-temperature frying and dehydration process, and the comprehensive yield of apple slices is 10.52%. Transportation mainly includes two ways of transporting products to the sales market. Fresh fruit apples are transported by fresh-keeping trucks with a load capacity of 18t. Dried fruit products are transported by ordinary trucks with a load capacity of 8t.

[0028] The data used in this invention are divided into real-life data and background data. Real-life data is data obtained through field research, statistics, etc., including all data on inputs at each stage of the apple supply chain, and background data is mainly data related to pollutant emissions. The production of consumable inputs (such as fertilizers, pesticides, agricultural films, electricity, palm oil, etc.) at each stage is mainly obtained through the database in GaBi 10.8 software, and other emission data are calculated by consulting literature.

[0029] The results of the life cycle assessment are shown in Table 1. The results show that among the four parts of the apple supply chain, apple cultivation is the main contributor to most of the environmental impacts, especially in ADP e, EP and AP. Apple storage is the largest contributor to GWP, and also has a large contribution to HTP, MAETP and ODP. Among the various stages of apple processing and packaging, the performance of the dried fruit processing stage in various environmental impacts is relatively prominent, especially for ADP. f , the fresh fruit packaging stage contributes the most to FAETP and ODP, and the juice processing stage has the greatest impact on AP. Product transportation contributes the most to FAETP, and apple planting should be the focus of supply chain environment improvement in the future, followed by apple storage and apple processing and packaging.

[0030] The economic benefit data comes from field research and statistical data, and the parameters required for environmental costs are shown in Table 2. The cost calculation results of each stage are shown in Table 3. It can be seen that due to the large amount of various agricultural inputs in the apple planting stage, its conventional cost, environmental cost and total cost are the largest. Fresh food packaging is mainly due to the large amount of plastic nets and the need for manual selection and packaging, which requires a lot of labor costs. Electricity, natural gas and packaging materials are the biggest contributors to the cost in the dried fruit processing stage. The transportation part is more prominent in the conventional cost. The total economic benefit obtained by the apple supply chain is 2323375CNY, and the total environmental cost is 8133245CNY.

[0031] The present invention converts environmental impact and actual operating costs into the same dimension for analysis, providing a more unified comprehensive evaluation method for the sustainable development of Apple's supply chain and laying the foundation for subsequent optimization of the supply chain.

[0032] Table 1 Environmental impact characteristic values ​​of each stage of Apple's supply chain

[0033]

[0034] Table 2 Monetary factors of various environmental impacts

[0035]

[0036] Table 3 Cost results for each stage of Apple’s supply chain

[0037]

Claims

1. A method for evaluating the sustainability of an apple supply chain, characterized in that: Here are the steps: (1) Determination of objectives and scope: The system boundaries are determined based on the actual operation of the apple supply chain. The system consists of four parts: apple planting, apple storage, apple processing and packaging, and transportation. It is divided into seven stages: commercial orchard planting stage, smallholder orchard planting stage, cold storage stage, juice processing stage, fresh apple packaging stage, dried fruit processing stage, and transportation stage. (2) Inventory analysis: Based on the production cycle of 1 ton of Red Fuji apples stored in cold storage within one year, the input and output of other stages are converted according to the proportion of functional units; the input and output data of each part of the supply chain are collected, sorted and summarized; (3) Environmental impact assessment: Gabi 10.8 software was used to construct an LCA environmental impact model for a typical apple supply chain. The characterization results were quantified using the CML 2001 model to calculate the environmental impacts of various environmental indicators, including abiotic depletion potential, abiotic depletion potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, freshwater aquatic ecotoxicity potential, global warming potential, human toxicity potential, marine aquatic ecotoxicity potential, ozone layer depletion potential, and terrestrial ecotoxicity potential; (4) Cost classification: Life cycle costs are classified according to different standards. For the purpose of explanation, they are divided into two categories: conventional costs and C r and environmental cost C e ; Conventional cost is the financial cost in the actual operation of the supply chain, and the calculation method is shown in the following formula (1); Among them, C r is the total regular cost of Apple products; C ri is the normal cost of the product in the i-th stage of the supply chain; m is the number of life cycle stages divided; An analysis method based on the theory of potential environmental impacts and social willingness to pay is used; social willingness to pay refers to the public's willingness to pay money to reduce or avoid certain types of environmental impacts; the monetary factors of six environmental impact categories are calculated and selected, and the characterization results of the LCA model are also used as input parameters. The environmental cost formula (2) is as follows: Among them, C e is the total environmental cost of Apple products; C eij is the jth type of environmental cost of the product in the i-th stage of the supply chain; m is the number of life cycle stages divided; n is the number of environmental cost types divided at a certain stage; (5) Economic indicators: In terms of economy, the total economic benefit is used as the economic indicator; the benefits are classified into the fresh fruit packaging stage, dried fruit processing stage, and juice processing stage of the supply chain, and the total economic benefit that the supply chain can bring is calculated using formula (3); Among them, E r is the total economic benefit of the supply chain, P i is the average market price of an apple product produced in the i-th stage of the supply chain. When i ≥ 4, P i Start taking value; N i is the weight of an Apple product produced at stage i of the supply chain; In terms of environment, total environmental cost is used as the environmental indicator.

Images