Water-energy-food nexus and business excellence models for a sustainability maturity evaluation of ten agri-food companies from Brazil and Kenya

Abstract

The present article aims to compare sustainability maturity results among ten agri-food industries located in Brazil and Kenya. Integrated nexus analyses are missing from previous models to perform this type of comparison. Most of existing models focus on macro-analysis issues rather than micro-analysis, which includes evaluating organizations' production practices. A novel model was developed integrating the water-energy-food nexus with business excellence models, resulting in the following evaluation items: drivers, agents, and processes. Through interviews, documentation analysis, and direct observation, ten agri-food industries were evaluated, five in Brazil and five in Kenya. The results obtained are expressed using a sustainability maturity model with a 7-point scale (ranging from one to seven). For drivers, Brazilian companies received an average score of 2.98, compared to 3.68 for Kenyan companies. Brazilian agri-food businesses received a score of 3.33, whereas Kenyan businesses obtained an average score of 3.73 in the agent item. Finally, for processes, Brazilian companies received 2.8, while Kenyan companies scored 3.27. Overall, Kenyan companies performed better than Brazilian companies. With these results, it was possible to conclude that the developed evaluation model can be used to evaluate an agri-food company sustainable status as well as to establish comparisons among companies and countries, with benchmarking potential.