The Cornell-r4 Applied AI Initiative is excited to offer the first lecture in its Data Science Seminar Series next week.
Elena Belavina
Friday, Feb 15, 3:30 p.m.
Gates Hall G01
Refreshments to follow outside auditorium
Title: The Environmental Impact of the Advent of Online Grocery Retail
Abstract: We assess the environmental impact of the advent of online grocery retailing. We build a model of offline and online grocery supply chains that compares the emissions from transportation and food-waste in the distribution, retail and consumption of groceries, before and after the advent of online grocery retailers. We identify the three key drivers: (i) which households switch online (ii) the ensuing online shopping patterns and (iii) changes in where inventory is held. In general, moderate grocery prices and delivery fees lead to favorable adoption primarily by far-off households, appropriate shopping frequencies, and beneficial inventory centralization. Numerical calibration reveals that in most US cities the advent of online grocery is beneficial, leading to a 8-41% emission reductions.
Bio: Elena Belavina is an Associate Professor at SC Johnson College of Business. She studies issues of sustainable urban transportation, food waste, grocery retail and supply chains, using systems modeling and econometric analyses of large datasets.
Jointly held with the CAM Colloquium
This seminar series is sponsored by the Cornell-r4 Applied AI Initiative, a partnership between Cornell and r4 Technologies that focuses on addressing business and societal problems holistically.