Brent Heard

• PhD Student at University of Michigan

The unbroken global refrigerated supply chain, or cold chain, is rapidly expanding in developing countries. In addition to increasing the energy intensity of the food system, the expanded cold chain may facilitate changes in the global diet, food waste patterns, food production and distribution, and shopping habits. The sustainability impacts of ma...

Connected and autonomous vehicles are anticipated to transform food distribution systems. The food distribution industry is a likely early-adopter of this technology, with resulting changes affecting the environmental and economic profiles of the food supply chain. Considerations for a truly sustainable adoption of this technology are discussed.

Urban systems draw on food, energy, and water outside of their physical boundaries, and create environmental impacts which extend beyond city borders. All three of these resources face growing demand, supply constraints, and are of substantial importance to a sustainable world. Our world is increasingly urbanized, with cities having large and conce...

Our food system is experiencing dramatic changes as the expansion of e-commerce, introduction of new products, and innovations in supply chain structures all pose to transform how we buy, sell, and distribute food. However, the environmental impacts of these transformations remain unclear. This feature reviews existing literature on environmental i...

Refrigerator ownership accompanies socio-economic development, with the potential to change human diets. Household refrigerator ownership in Vietnam has increased from 13% to 59% between 2004-2014. This study estimates changes in food consumption and diet linkages with household refrigerator ownership in Vietnam, while controlling for socioeconomic...

Purpose Sustainable diets are an environmental, economic, and public health imperative, but identifying clear intervention points is challenging. Decision-making will require descriptive analyses from a variety of perspectives, even under the inevitable uncertainty introduced by limited data. This study uses existing data to provide a diet-level pe...

Refrigeration transforms food systems. The global integrated refrigerated supply chain, or “cold chain,” impacts numerous sustainability outcomes, from energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, to consumer diets and producer behavior. This dissertation seeks to understand refrigeration’s systems-level sustainability implications: first...

Meal kits contain ingredients for cooking a meal that are pre-portioned, packaged, and delivered to a consumer's residence. Life cycle environmental impacts associated with climate change, acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use are compared for five dinner recipes sourced as meal kits and through grocery store retailing. Inventory d...

Refrigeration transforms developing food systems, changing the dynamics of production and consumption. This study models the introduction of an integrated refrigerated supply chain, or "cold chain," into sub-Saharan Africa and estimates changes in preretail greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if the cold chain develops similarly to North America or Euro...