Greening the agrifood supply chain with lean thinking practices

In this paper, a systematic approach for measuring the environmental performance of a supply chain in agrifood sector based on the value stream mapping (VSM) technique is presented and analysed. The proposed approach aims to determine waste, in terms of measuring the non-value-added time of production and logistics processes, as well as, water and energy used across organisational boundaries. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate its applicability and effectiveness and to understand its sustainable impacts, the suggested approach is applied in an agrifood product (corn for animal feed) and the corresponding supply chain. VSM diagrams are created and specific practices are proposed in order to minimise waste in the examined supply chain.