Sustainable Operations through Product Philanthropy: Models and Applications in Food Inventory Donation

直到最近，人们才开始发现可持续发展的下一个前沿领域：减少食物浪费。在加拿大，为人类生产的食物中约有40%被浪费了。食物浪费是个大问题。从经济上讲，由于食物和资源的浪费，这是一个巨大的损失。在环境方面，大多数食物垃圾最终被扔进垃圾填埋场，释放出比二氧化碳有害25倍的甲烷。从道德上讲，这是错误的，因为八分之一的加拿大家庭没有粮食保障。这个问题的一个潜在解决方案是粮食库存捐赠。也就是说，食品供应链上的公司将（多余的）食品捐赠给慈善机构。轶事和实证研究表明，食物捐赠是一个三重底线的解决方案。首先，它可以通过申请税收抵免和降低处置成本来提高企业的税后利润。第二，它为穷人服务。第三，它通过减少进入垃圾填埋场的变质食物数量来保护地球。******然而，食品库存捐赠或产品慈善（例如，商品捐赠）总体上仍然不那么普遍，特别是在加拿大。为了进一步告知利益相关者是否以及如何实施产品慈善，研究人员呼吁进行经济建模和严格分析。我们的建议是第一个回应这一呼吁的。我们的长期目标是为产品慈善事业提供决策支持工具、管理见解和政策建议。在短期内，我们的目标是回答三个关键问题：当前加拿大的政策如何影响公司的运营（例如，生产）、营销（例如，定价）和捐赠（何时和多少）决策？它们能带来利润的提高和浪费的减少吗？如果不是，有什么更好的政策？在这里，我们将分析加拿大是否应该采用美国对捐赠产品的市场价值（而不是成本）进行税收抵免的政策和韩国对垃圾填埋使用进行税收罚款的政策。我们将从研究三种设置开始。首先，多个产量不确定的农场将产品卖给需求不确定的杂货零售商。零售商可以捐赠多余的库存，而农场可以将外观不完美的滞销产品捐赠给慈善机构。其次，零售商（例如百吉饼店）决定每个期间购买的新产品数量，并在每个期间结束时决定捐赠的数量和结转到下一个期间的数量。第三，供应商向在库存和/或零售价格上竞争的零售商销售产品。这里的重点是调查产品慈善是否会导致零售价格上涨，这一直是制药行业关注的问题。我们将使用优化和博弈论等工具。****** 2012年，欧洲议会通过一项决议，到2020年将食物浪费减少50%，并将2014年定为“欧洲反对食物浪费年”。现在是加拿大认真对待食物浪费问题的时候了，我们相信我们提出的研究将是一个很好的开始

Only recently have people begun to discover the next frontier of sustainability: food waste reduction. In Canada, about 40% of food produced for humans is wasted . Food waste is a huge problem. Economically, it is a colossal loss due to the waste of food and the resources used. Environmentally, most food waste ends up in landfills emitting methane which is 25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. Morally, this is wrong because one in eight Canadian families are food insecure. A potential solution to this problem is food inventory donation. That is, firms along food supply chains donate (excess) food to charities. Anecdotes and empirical studies have shown food donation as a triple-bottom-line solution. First, it can improve a firm's after-tax profit by claiming tax credit and reducing disposal cost. Second, it serves the poor. Third, it protects the planet by decreasing the amount of food spoilage going to landfills.******However, food inventory donation, or product philanthropy (e.g., merchandise donation) in general, is still not that common, especially in Canada. To further inform stakeholders on if and how to implement product philanthropy, researchers have called for economic modeling and rigorous analyses. Our proposal is the first to answer this call. Our long-term goal is to generate decision support tools, managerial insights, and policy suggestions for product philanthropy. In the short term, we aim to answer three critical questions: how do the current Canadian policies impact a firm's operational (e.g., production), marketing (e.g., pricing), and donation (when and how much) decisions? Do they lead to profit improvement and waste reduction? If not, what are the better policies? Here, we will analyze if Canada should adopt the U.S. policy which allows tax credit for the market value (not the cost) of the donated products and the South Korean policy imposing tax penalty for landfill use. We will start by investigating three settings. First, multiple farms with yield uncertainty sell to a grocery retailer with demand uncertainty. The retailer can donate excess inventory and the farms can donate unsalable products with cosmetic imperfection to charities. Second, a retailer (e.g., a bagel store) decides on the amount of new products to buy for each period, and at the end of each period, the amount of donation and the amount to carry over to the next period. Third, a supplier sells to retailers competing in inventory and/or retail price. A focus here is to investigate whether product philanthropy leads to retail price inflation, which has been a concern in the pharmaceutical industry. We will use tools like Optimization and Game Theory.******In 2012, European Parliament adopted a resolution to reduce food waste by 50% by 2020 and designated 2014 as the "European Year against Food Waste". Now it is the time for Canada to become serious about food waste and we believe that our proposed research will be an excellent start.**