Global Food Collaborative

The airfreight Industry is being confronted with the same pressure as the shipping and road transport industry that being, polluters of the environment. Governments and businesses have taken steps to highlight the effects of the CO2 escalation and have made consumers aware of the consequences, as well as the causes of CO2 escalation.  However, the media and others have often rushed to incorrect conclusions without searching for the true facts, and especially without scientific evaluation of the causes of the various CO2 contributors. Consequently the CCA has put priority on this topic and as such CO2 emissions of the various modes of perishable transports was the focus of this event.  The CCA is also working closely with IATA in order to establish a common voice for the aviation industry in reference to creditable information and references on the CO2 emission issues.
 
The environmental debate started on the second day at 11.00 o’clock with the attendees, continued in smaller group in the afternoon, while other participants were divided into other working groups such as the PPECB pilot project, where the CCA wants to determine, that applying the CCQI standards will lead to an improvement on shelf-life, reduce waste and CO2 emission. Meanwhile the Technology/Cargo2000 group agreed to a continuous effort and strategy to cooperate with IATA’s Cargo 2000 to integrate temperature controls into the C2K process flow, to investigate the possibilities of integrating RFID technology into temperature and C2K measurements as a tool for improved accuracy and efficiency. Furthermore, it was agreed to promote the use of a standardised perishable label to facilitate and improve the handling of perishable and pharmaceutical shipments requiring storage during transport within a certain temperature range. The University of Bremen also presented their process with their intelligent container.
 
Talks about the percentage of man-made CO2 emissions led to discussions about reducing fuel, increasing added values into transportation and more efficient transport routes. These discussions and the calculation of the percentages had a stunning effect on the audience, due to several ways to look on the emissions produced by air transport versus sea transport or locally grown flowers. JP Emond, UFL hosted the working group CO2-emissions, which discussed the report he and Tony Wright, Exelsius prepared for the CCA. Tony Wright presented the report to the audience earlier in the day and it was up to JP Emond to lead the discussions. Some stated that they did not see a need for reducing and improving, due to the fact that the total amount of man-made emissions were less that 3% of the total CO2- emissions. Others argued that a defensive stance would not be the best way to handle such a sensitive issue. The Airline KLM/AF prefer to face the problem and demonstrate to the world how the airline is reducing their emissions. In contrast stand the approach of the UK, which intends to offset food-miles by carbon licensing. Food-mile is one dimension used in assessing the environmental impact of food.
 
Quote of the day: “CCA does not tolerate waste, including emissions”
 
Highlights were the two site visits, one to the DHL Innovation Center, secondly an invitation to the RUNGIS express AG warehouse, concluded by a high-class dinner.
 
In connection with the working groups and presentation the CCA held their annual general meeting and elected the directors of the board. Remaining on the board are Christian Helms as Secretary General and Arne Lossius as Treasurer. Re-elected for another period of three year was Chairman Robert Arendal, who accepted the renewal with thanks. The members showed their appreciation for the chairman, who is now in his third term of office, since the founding of the CCA. Because of the resignation of the former directors Steven Boyd of AmSafe and Ian Gregory of BMI, the members elected two new members at large, being Stavros Evangelakakis of Cargolux Airlines and Arnaud de Bakker of Worldwide Flight Services.
 
For further information contact:
 
Kerstin Belgardt
Cool Chain Association
Contrescarpe 52
28195 Bremen/Germany
T: +49 421 460 470-12
F: +49 421 460 470-10
www.coolchain.org

Cool Chain Quality Indicators - A New Standard For Supply Chain Quality For Perishables

For more information pls. contact:
Germanischer Lloyd Certification
Vorsetzen 35
20459 Hamburg
Germany

Mr. Fred Wohlers
Phone: +49 (0) 40 361 49 7229
Fax : +49 (0) 40 361 49 650
Email :