A new report by RELEX Solutions, provider of unified supply chain and retail planning solutions, has found that in the last year, the company’s AI-driven solutions helped RELEX food retail customers worldwide save a combined estimated 11 million kg of food waste across the supply chain thanks to more accurate forecast and inventory optimization - the equivalent of more than 35,000 tons of CO2.
The figures in the RELEX Solutions 2023 Sustainability Report represent an increase of over 20 percent in food waste savings over the previous year. By enabling more efficient use of customers’ transport capacity, RELEX also reduced transport emissions across the supply chain through more accurate planning and optimized deliveries.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, food waste is responsible for up to eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. With roughly one-third of the world’s food supply going to waste every year, identifying and tackling the causes of food waste across the supply chain is crucial in order to reduce CO2 emissions and spoilage.
"Alongside efforts to reduce food waste, we’ve been developing capabilities in our software to track our customers’ CO2 emissions to help them achieve their sustainability goals. Customers can see the CO2 impact of the goods flowing through the supply chain and measure the effect the reduced spoilage has on their carbon footprint,” said Svante Göthe, Head of Sustainability at RELEX Solutions.
RELEX achieved retroactive carbon neutrality in 2022.
As the European Union aims to become climate-neutral by 2050, companies of all sizes have a critical role to play in advancing sustainable development. RELEX has long committed to offsetting emissions across scopes 1, 2, and 3 set by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol
Corporate Standard, including direct emissions, indirect emissions from purchased energy, and emissions that occur indirectly across the value chain.
RELEX retroactively reached carbon neutrality for 2021 in 2022 with a variety of initiatives to minimize, offset, or remove entirely company-wide emissions. For example, all of the RELEX offices and private cloud data centers run on renewable energy.
"At RELEX, we approach sustainability broadly from environmental, social, and governance perspectives,” continued Göthe. ”We not only focus on our corporate-level responsibility but believe that when individuals come together and focus on their everyday decisions, they drive positive impact. It is incredibly motivating to work in an industry where we can drive benefits for our customers, employees, and the planet.”
RELEX also took active measures to spread sustainability awareness within the organization, including organizing a sustainability challenge using the climate action platform Deedster to challenge thier employees to improve long-term sustainability efforts at home and work. Around 450 participants completed over 25,000 sustainability deeds resulting in over 11,500 kg of CO2 saved during just one month.
In Autumn 2022, the founders of RELEX Solutions established a €100M charity foundation, RELEX Foundation for a better future, to battle climate change and reduce inequality with a cash injection of €10M and almost €100M worth of RELEX stocks.