What is ICCEE ?
The food and beverage sector is at the heart of EU’s economy representing around 12.8% of the value added in manufacturing and has over 294,000 companies employing more than 4.57 million people. In 2016, the sector contributed to over €1,109 billion in turnover and in 2015 over €230 billion in value added.
The embedded energy in all food consumed accounts for more than 25% of the EU-27 total final energy consumption. SMEs accounted for 48.1% and 62.3% of the sector’s total turnover and employment, respectively. The share of energy costs in total production costs is also relatively high. For instance, in the manufacture of dairy products, energy costs are about 11% of the production value added and in the manufacture of prepared animal feeds, it represents about 16% of the production value added.
The Improving Cold Chain Energy Efficiency (ICCEE) project will facilitate the food and beverage sector cold chains to undertake energy efficiency measures after carrying out supply chain energy assessments. Why focus on the cold chains of the sector? Because of its significant stages (refrigerated transport, processing and storage) with large energy saving potential. The project follows a holistic approach, shifting from a single company perspective to the chain assessment, which will lead to increased opportunities for energy efficiency measures. Through expert analytical tools and dedicated stakeholder capacity building programmes, ICCEE will accelerate turning energy efficiency opportunities into actual investments, with a special focus on supply chains involving European small and medium sized enterprises.
What is the cold supply chain?
The supply chain is a network of companies from the supply procurement to the end customer.
The cold supply chain is among the most energy-intensive systems within the food and beverage sector whilst there is limited understanding of its large energy efficiency potential and the economic advantages that can be obtained from energy saving measures. The focus of ICCEE is on SMEs in cold chains of the food and beverage sector. Nevertheless, supply chains can also include large companies.
The ICCEE tool
ICCEE will integrate the characteristics of cold chains of the food and beverage sector in an analytical decision support tool with tailor-made analyses related to the energy performance for the different process stages (e.g., raw material preparation, logistic and warehousing operations, production and processing of products, packaging). To enable the update of energy efficiency measures and to support the decision making processes of the supply chain companies in estimating their energy saving potential, ICCEE will design and deliver a dedicated cold supply chain energy efficiency tool.
Benefits for companies
Companies participating in ICCEE learn about their potential to improve energy efficiency and the non-energy benefits of energy efficiency. They can compare themselves with the supply chaing energy performance of other companies and understand the opportunities energy efficiency measures bring for their companies.
Companies can also participate in the capacity building programmes that involve training and e-learning activities.
The specific objectives of ICCEE are:
- Design and deliver a dedicated cold supply chain energy efficiency tool to support the decision making processes of the supply chain companies in estimating their energy saving potential,
- Promote and facilitate investments in the viable energy efficiency improvement measures estimated with the tool,
- Create a capacity building programme and a community dedicated to exchange experiences in cold chains’ sustainability, supporting the change in the energy culture of companies and improving their energy performance through both direct training and e-learning.