Measuring the impacts of distribution systems coupling transport modeling and life-cycle assessment
Abstract
For retailers and consumers, the calculation of environmental impacts related to their supply activity or consumption is now a
challenge to either optimize organization or change shopping habits. However, retail activities are now very diverse based on the
nature of products sold, on their commercial surface and their associated distribution logistics. Indeed, in addition to e-commerce
retail, “brick-and-mortar” shops rely on various last-mile distribution systems.
In this paper, we propose to assess the carbon footprint of various distribution systems available to households in a given urban
area. In order to do this, we propose a coupling of classic transport modeling methods with a life-cycle assessment (LCA) approach.
Six distribution systems are modeled and compared. Five are “traditional” retail sectors: hypermarkets, supermarkets, small
generalist retail, small food retail and small non-food retail. For all five, we model warehouse activity, shop delivery, shop in use,
consumer mobility and delivery packaging. For e-commerce home deliveries, only warehouse, home delivery and packaging are
modeled.