Effekter av branschöverenskommelsen för den fossilfria leveransen: nuläge och vägar framåt
(2024)- Abstract
- The Swedish retail landscape is currently undergoing a transformative change with increased digitalization and a rapidly growing e-commerce sector, which creates both opportunities and challenges. The development towards omnichannel commerce creates a more complex customer journey and results in complex environmental challenges. E-commerce deliveries to consumers, in particular, pose a complex societal challenge that contributes to carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution. At the same time, a plethora of unclear and arbitrary terms, such as "climate-smart," are used at checkout to describe more environmentally friendly delivery options, creating confusion and making it difficult for consumers to make informed decisions.
The... (More) - The Swedish retail landscape is currently undergoing a transformative change with increased digitalization and a rapidly growing e-commerce sector, which creates both opportunities and challenges. The development towards omnichannel commerce creates a more complex customer journey and results in complex environmental challenges. E-commerce deliveries to consumers, in particular, pose a complex societal challenge that contributes to carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution. At the same time, a plethora of unclear and arbitrary terms, such as "climate-smart," are used at checkout to describe more environmentally friendly delivery options, creating confusion and making it difficult for consumers to make informed decisions.
The industry agreement for fossil-free delivery, developed by Svensk Handel in collaboration with ASTER, aims to create clarity in the checkout process regarding the concept of fossil-free delivery and to provide consumers with clearer information to make environmentally conscious choices. To date, it has been unclear what effects the industry agreement has had and how environmental, economic, and social sustainability have been impacted by these effects. The purpose of this project is to identify and describe the effects of the industry agreement for fossil-free delivery. Exploring these effects generates important knowledge for the further development of the industry agreement.
A total of 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 respondents from 17 different organizations. The interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide and were recorded with the express consent of the respondents. After transcription, the interviews were analyzed using open coding and axial coding. The qualitative interview data were supplemented with quantitative data for triangulation, such as annual and sustainability reports, to increase the reliability and validity of the analysis.
The project contributes to a structured and holistic understanding of the motivations to join the industry agreement, its effects, and its impact. The study results show that the motivations to join revolve primarily around creating clarity for consumers, external pressures, influencing the industry, existing sustainability goals, staying ahead of legislation, and the zeitgeist. Effects refer to how the various actors have worked with the industry agreement and focus on interaction with consumers, the transport fleet, reporting, and management. Impact refers to the influence of the industry agreement with regard to environmental, economic, and social aspects. Environmentally, the impact mainly involves an increased proportion of fossil-free deliveries. Economically, the impact revolves around reduced costs, a stronger negotiating position, and the fact that no revenue has been lost. Socially, the impact focuses on reduced noise from e-commerce transports.
The project identifies several criticisms of the design of the industry agreement that have been raised by both e-retailers and transporters. The criticism mainly concerns follow-up (third-party review vs. self-assessment), sustainability dimension (social vs. environmental sustainability), scope (entire supply chain vs. warehouse to consumer), mass balance (mass balance principle vs. fossil-free for individual deliveries), fuel (green gas principle not accepted), competitive situation (perceived to disadvantage well-established actors), and requirements (too low requirements for joining).
This report also presents suggestions for further development of the industry agreement based on the criticisms of the agreement and aspects that worked less well. The hope is that these suggestions will stimulate continued discussion in the industry and help all involved actors find the way forward and tackle the next steps. The suggestions revolve around broader participation, creating an industry agreement for emission-free delivery, building a brand for the industry agreement, regular follow-ups, creating transparency, and providing reporting templates. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/384d390a-d6e9-4026-b4b5-791e850895b6
- author
- Olsson, John LU
- organization
- alternative title
- Effects of the industry agreement for fossil-free delivery: current state and paths forward
- publishing date
- 2024-05-16
- type
- Book/Report
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Logistics, Retail, Industry-agreement, Fossil-free, E-commerce
- pages
- 28 pages
- publisher
- Packaging Logistics, Lund University
- project
- Effects of the industry agreement for fossil-free delivery: current state and paths forward
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 384d390a-d6e9-4026-b4b5-791e850895b6
- date added to LUP
- 2024-05-16 14:06:16
- date last changed
- 2024-05-17 11:27:54
@techreport{384d390a-d6e9-4026-b4b5-791e850895b6,
abstract = {{The Swedish retail landscape is currently undergoing a transformative change with increased digitalization and a rapidly growing e-commerce sector, which creates both opportunities and challenges. The development towards omnichannel commerce creates a more complex customer journey and results in complex environmental challenges. E-commerce deliveries to consumers, in particular, pose a complex societal challenge that contributes to carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution. At the same time, a plethora of unclear and arbitrary terms, such as "climate-smart," are used at checkout to describe more environmentally friendly delivery options, creating confusion and making it difficult for consumers to make informed decisions.<br/><br/>The industry agreement for fossil-free delivery, developed by Svensk Handel in collaboration with ASTER, aims to create clarity in the checkout process regarding the concept of fossil-free delivery and to provide consumers with clearer information to make environmentally conscious choices. To date, it has been unclear what effects the industry agreement has had and how environmental, economic, and social sustainability have been impacted by these effects. The purpose of this project is to identify and describe the effects of the industry agreement for fossil-free delivery. Exploring these effects generates important knowledge for the further development of the industry agreement.<br/><br/>A total of 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 respondents from 17 different organizations. The interviews followed a semi-structured interview guide and were recorded with the express consent of the respondents. After transcription, the interviews were analyzed using open coding and axial coding. The qualitative interview data were supplemented with quantitative data for triangulation, such as annual and sustainability reports, to increase the reliability and validity of the analysis.<br/><br/>The project contributes to a structured and holistic understanding of the motivations to join the industry agreement, its effects, and its impact. The study results show that the motivations to join revolve primarily around creating clarity for consumers, external pressures, influencing the industry, existing sustainability goals, staying ahead of legislation, and the zeitgeist. Effects refer to how the various actors have worked with the industry agreement and focus on interaction with consumers, the transport fleet, reporting, and management. Impact refers to the influence of the industry agreement with regard to environmental, economic, and social aspects. Environmentally, the impact mainly involves an increased proportion of fossil-free deliveries. Economically, the impact revolves around reduced costs, a stronger negotiating position, and the fact that no revenue has been lost. Socially, the impact focuses on reduced noise from e-commerce transports.<br/><br/>The project identifies several criticisms of the design of the industry agreement that have been raised by both e-retailers and transporters. The criticism mainly concerns follow-up (third-party review vs. self-assessment), sustainability dimension (social vs. environmental sustainability), scope (entire supply chain vs. warehouse to consumer), mass balance (mass balance principle vs. fossil-free for individual deliveries), fuel (green gas principle not accepted), competitive situation (perceived to disadvantage well-established actors), and requirements (too low requirements for joining).<br/><br/>This report also presents suggestions for further development of the industry agreement based on the criticisms of the agreement and aspects that worked less well. The hope is that these suggestions will stimulate continued discussion in the industry and help all involved actors find the way forward and tackle the next steps. The suggestions revolve around broader participation, creating an industry agreement for emission-free delivery, building a brand for the industry agreement, regular follow-ups, creating transparency, and providing reporting templates.}},
author = {{Olsson, John}},
institution = {{Packaging Logistics, Lund University}},
keywords = {{Logistics; Retail; Industry-agreement; Fossil-free; E-commerce}},
language = {{swe}},
month = {{05}},
title = {{Effekter av branschöverenskommelsen för den fossilfria leveransen: nuläge och vägar framåt}},
url = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/183610612/2024.05.15_Bransch_verkommelsen_Slutrapport.pdf}},
year = {{2024}},
}