Time: Wednesday, March 22, from 10:40 to 12:10 CET

Organizers: Denise Beil, Silvia Dopler, Lisa-Maria Putz-Egger, Laura Hörandner

• Submission type: Draft teaching case
• Target group: Adaptable to master students, bachelor students, vocational students and practitioners training
• Organisation addressed in the case: Nothegger Transport Logistik GmbH (private limited company)
• Type of teaching case: Case based on a partnership with the company (use of primary data)
• Type of data available: Transport related data in excel file
• The case has been tested with students in a lecture: Yes (with bachelor and master students)

Abstract: The following teaching case deals with a feasibility analysis of a modal shift from road to inland navigation in terms of transport costs and emission calculation in the freight transport sector. It focuses on a shipping company intending to shift transport volumes from road to eco-friendly modes for transports between Austria and Romania. These efforts are based on the demands by the EU Green Deal for a more balanced modal split of European transport modes and the necessity of calculating transport related CO2 emissions. Lack of knowledge about other sustainable modes of transport is often the reason that the road is still the most used mode of transport. The following case study offers young professionals in the logistics sector the opportunity to gain knowledge about a possible modal shift to eco-friendly transport modes through a realistic data analysis. Furthermore, students learn how to calculate CO2 emissions on a tonne-kilometer basis using the GLEC framework. The theoretical part is limited to the acquisition of knowledge about inland navigation, the calculation of transport costs and the basics of eco-friendly freight mode choices. Experience and basic knowledge in the area of logistics is helpful. The data set contains data on 100 shipments.

Acknowledgement: This teaching case was developed within IW-NET “Innovation-driven Collaborative European Inland Waterways Transport Network” project on a public dissemination level and further developed for submission. The authors would like to thank Nothegger Transport Logistik GmbH for their kind approval.

Time: Wednesday, March 22, from 10:40 to 12:10 CET

Organizers: Valentin Schmidt, Markus Gerschberger

• Target group: Master level or advanced bachelor classes
• Type of organization: German discount supermarket chain with more than 11000 stores worldwide
• Type of teaching case: The teaching case is based on a partnership with the organization studied and primary data is used
• Type of data available: The appended data set includes inbound shipments by truck or rail from suppliers in-side the USA or ports (for suppliers outside the USA) to Aldi’s regional distribution centers carried out by various logistics service providers in a typical month (June 2021).

Abstract: The teaching case is intended to introduce students to different approaches and indicators for measuring sustainability in supply chains. The focus is on measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by transportation. The case represents a real-life scenario of a grocery retail chain in the USA and includes primary data.

Time: Thursday, March 23, from 09:00 to 10:30 CET

Organizer: Robert Klassen

• Target group:  graduate and undergraduate students, as well as executives
• Type of organisation addressed in the case: name and characteristics of the organisation studied.  Flashfood is a private firm, which is growing rapidly as an entrepreneurial venture
• Type of teaching cases:  Case based on a partnership with an organisation (use of primary data)
• Type of data: interview, videos, reports

Abstract: In June 2021, as Toronto-based Flashfood Inc. (Flashfood) continued to grow dramatically, Josh Domingues, the founder and chief executive officer, was facing critical questions about how to manage the firm’s mission and business model. Flashfood partnered with grocery chains to sell near-expiry food to consumers via an app, and it had an expanding network of locations in Canada and the United States. The firm had a clear sustainability-driven objective: to reduce food waste and feed people more affordably. But how should the firm focus its ongoing investment and scarce resources—both strategically, in terms of market development and service offerings, and tactically, in terms of product pricing and app improvement? Could the firm achieve sustained success while avoiding any potential tendency to drift from that mission?

Like a growing number of new ventures and early stage businesses, Flashfood was emphasizing sustainability as a core focus of its business model and value creation. As managers sought to build success, they face traditional strategic and operational decisions to expand and adapt to marketplace opportunities. Yet these new ventures must go further, as they face difficult decisions to balance tensions between business growth, profitability, and sustainability goals.

Time: Thursday, March 23, from 09:00 to 10:30 CET

Organizers: Alejandro Nunez-Jimenez, Emily Elsner, Volker Hoffmann and Johannes Meuer

The case utilises Coop, a global sustainability leader in the retails/ supermarket industry with a proven track-record of developing and managing impactful sustainability initiatives, to explore how sustainability decision-making requires navigation of tensions and trade-offs. It demonstrates that making strategic decisions require firms to consider tensions such as between different sustainability dimensions, over time, across regions and due to costs.

The case introduces participants to:

• Assessing sustainability proposals for different impacts
• Formulating a coherent sustainability strategy for a company, within a limited budget
• Justifying and explaining the strategy in terms of the trade-offs made, from the perspective of the company
• Understanding how decision-making happens within a corporate context

The framing of the case study is focused on the Coop Board of Directors – the group within the organisation with ultimate responsibility for the company’s direction and strategy. The Board of Directors requests the Coop CEO, Philipp Wyss, to commission sustainability proposals on a range of topics relevant to the organisation, so that the Board can choose a selection of ideas to build a strategy. The case’s decision point centres on that choice process, and how the Board of Directors should select their portfolio of ideas to maintain Coop’s position as a sustainability leader in the retail industry.