Decarbonization Potential of Logistic 4.0 Technologies in Apple Supply Chains

Abstract

The two major trends influencing modern production are digitalization and clean technologies, mainly driven by the technological development respectively by the severe crises of our biosphere. The Logistics 4.0 concept aims to integrate different digital technologies into our Supply Chains (SC) and is often seen as a possibility to enhance the process performance. Different authors qualitatively describe its potentials to improve the carbon footprint or the ecological performance of logistics processes. This paper presents a method to estimate the CO2 reduction potentials for different Logistics 4.0 technologies. On the basis of a comparative CO2-footprint analyse for apple SC from two different countries, the possibilities to integrate certain Logistics 4.0 technological achievements are evaluated. Afterwards the reduction potentials for different steps of the SC are estimated and discussed on the basis of literature and expert opinions. While the assessment in some sections of the SC resulted in high potentials, for the majority of the assessed SC steps and technologies small reduction potentials are estimated.