▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄
█▄▄░▄▄█░▄▄▀█░▄▄▀█▀▄▀█░▄▄███░▄▄▀█░▄▄▀█░▄▀███▄▄░▄▄█░▄▄▀█░▄▄▀█▀▄▀█░▄▄█░▄▄▀█░▄▄▀██▄██░███▄██▄░▄█░██░
███░███░▀▀▄█░▀▀░█░█▀█░▄▄███░▀▀░█░██░█░█░█████░███░▀▀▄█░▀▀░█░█▀█░▄▄█░▀▀░█░▄▄▀██░▄█░███░▄██░██░▀▀░
███░███▄█▄▄█▄██▄██▄██▄▄▄███▄██▄█▄██▄█▄▄██████░███▄█▄▄█▄██▄██▄██▄▄▄█▄██▄█▄▄▄▄█▄▄▄█▄▄█▄▄▄██▄██▀▀▀▄
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

Article; More than 100 container ships rerouted from Suez canal to avoid Houthi attacks
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/20/more-than-100-container-ships-rerouted-suez-canal-red-sea-houthi-attacks-yemen


More than 100 container ships have been rerouted around southern Africa to avoid the Suez canal, in a sign of the disruption to global trade caused by Houthi rebels attacking vessels on the western coast of Yemen. The shipping company Kuehne and Nagel said it had identified 103 ships that had already changed course, with more expected to go around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. The diversion adds about 6,000 nautical miles to a typical journey from Asia to Europe, potentially adding three or four weeks to product delivery times.

Rémunéra score
https://www.foodlog.nl/gespot/2023-08-08/


De Rémunéra-score was al voorzien in de wet Egalim-2, een wet die de verbetering van het boereninkomen beoogt. Frankrijk nam in 2017, na de Etats Généraux de l'Alimentation die de net gekozen president Emmanuel Macron toen organiseerde, een aantal maatregelen om de Franse landbouw te ondersteunen. Niet alle maatregelen van het Franse landbouw- en voedselbeleid pakten even goed uit, vandaar het vervolg. Door middel van een label met letters en kleuren, vergelijkbaar met de Nutri-Score, krijgen consumenten inzicht in de prijs die aan de boeren wordt betaald. Het label gaat gelden voor rund-, varkens-, schapen- en geitenvlees, verse groenten en fruit, eieren, melk en zuivel van koeien-, geiten- of schapenmelk. De sectoren wijn, pluimvee(producten) en granen vallen niet onder de regeling. In het decreet wordt geen enkele distributiemethode of afzetkanaal uitgesloten.

Article; Cold chain
https://www.dcvelocity.com/articles/59374-raising-temperatures-of-cold-storage-warehouses-would-cut-emissions-lineage-says
According to the group, academic research shows that raising the standard storage temperature of most frozen food by just 3 degrees Celsius to -15 C could make a significant environmental impact by cutting carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of taking 3.8 million cars off the road per year, without compromising food safety or quality.

Wakeo; Company Website
https://wakeo.co/
A single platform connected to the largest network on the market for freight forwarders, shippers and carriers. Unlock the value of your supply chain with multimodal real-time visibility.

SeaRoutes; Company Website
https://searoutes.com/
Searoutes leverages modern algorithms & datasets to go beyond the standard methodologies. We provide CO2 emissions for transport, and powerful routing engines, that accurately match the services operated by the carriers.

Fair Labor
https://www.fairlabor.org/
The Fair Labor Association® (FLA) provides training and tools to build expertise in companies and drive innovation in business practices, ultimately improving working conditions and the lives of the workers who make the products you buy. FLA’s wide range of evidence-based, ready-to-implement resources allows us to meet companies where they are on their journey to improving workers’ rights. We provide targeted guidance for companies working to achieve FLA Accreditation and ongoing training for accredited companies. We offer a learning program for Collegiate Licensees, whose University partners are eager to raise labor standards for merchandise bearing their logos. FLA conducts leading-edge research on critical topics such as fair compensation/living wage, supply chain innovation, and forced labor/child labor—ultimately allowing us to provide partners with evidence-based advice and tools to improve labor practices.

Supply Chain Innocation: Drone Corridor
https://techhq.com/2023/01/supply-chain-innovation-drone-corridor-unlocks-pilotless-future/
If you’re a fan of flight tracking websites such as flightradar24.com, planefinder.net, and other apps showing air traffic, then you’ll be familiar with the concept of highways in the sky. Monitored by air traffic controllers, planes keep to designated flight paths or air tracks. Point-to-point air transport has tremendous supply chain advantages, primarily in getting goods to customers in the shortest possible time. And delivery options could soon include uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) thanks to commercial drone corridor plans.

Article; How environmentally friendly are Iceland’s data centers?
https://techhq.com/2023/11/how-environmentally-friendly-are-icelands-data-centers/
Iceland certainly sees itself as one of the most viable options for handling our ever-growing data demands, and with good reason. The country has a mild climate all year round, with temperatures ranging from just above freezing in the winter to around 54°F (12°C) in the summer, and the range is even smaller on the south of the island. This essentially provides data centers, that produce a lot of heat but must be kept at around 68 to 77°F (20 to 25°C), with a free, natural cooling system that doesn’t require any energy. Iceland’s data center industry boasts an impressive power usage effectiveness (PUE) range of 1.05 to 1.2, thanks to the lack of air conditioning systems and instances of hardware overheating.

White House creates cabinet-level supply chain council
https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/white-house-creates-council-supply-chain-resilience/
“Robust supply chains are fundamental to a strong economy. When supply chains smooth, prices fall for goods, food, and equipment, putting more money in the pockets of American families, workers, farmers, and entrepreneurs,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “That is why President Biden made supply chain resilience a priority from Day One of his Administration.”

Article; Electric mountain, The beauty of infrastructure
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/nov/02/beauty-of-infrastructure-electric-mountain-dinorwig-power-station-north-wales

Infrastructural systems are more than just technical – they are social and political. They are shaped by the sustained relationships of the people who live in the places they connect, and they also form part of that relationship. They can’t easily be valued or assessed like a consumer good, where it’s “worth it” to buy something or not. Deciding to buy a car has little in common with deciding when, where and how to build the roads to drive it on. So infrastructural systems don’t lend themselves to decision-making that focuses solely on the costs or the returns on investment.

An infrastructural network can encode and promote a set of values: everyone should have access to clean water, or electricity is a necessity, or personal mobility is a human right, or a healthy population is important, or broadband access is required to fully participate in civic society, or even endangered fish should be protected. While infrastructural systems can meet basic human needs, providing agency and freedom, the specific form they take depends on cultural norms and expectations; in turn, the systems set and define those norms and expectations.

article bibliography essay infrastructure | permalink | 2023-11-02 12:16:03

The Atlas of the Offshore World
https://atlas-offshore.world/


The Atlas of the Offshore World is a new effort by the EU Tax Observatory to inform the global debate around international tax evasion and avoidance. It offers up-to-date information about the dynamic of profit shifting by multinational companies and offshore wealth.

Sedex; Company Website
https://www.sedex.com/
More than 75,000 businesses from across the world have made Sedex their trusted partner in creating a more socially and environmentally sustainable supply chain. From our platform’s unrivalled data insights to our team’s expert guidance, Sedex makes it easy for you to manage, assess, and report on sustainability performance and, ultimately, meet your supply chain goals

Standards map
https://standardsmap.org/en/home
The world’s largest database for sustainability standards We provide free, accessible, comprehensive, verified and transparent information on over 300 standards for environmental protection, worker and labour rights, economic development, quality and food safety, as well as business ethics.

Book; Dead in the Water
https://www.matthew-campbell.com/dead-in-the-water
Dead in the Water is a shocking expose of the corrupt inner workings of international shipping, told through the lens of the Brillante hijacking and its aftermath. Through first-hand accounts of those who lived it—from members of the ship’s crew and witnesses to the attacks, to the ex-London detectives turned private investigators seeking to solve Mockett’s murder and bring justice to his family—award-winning Bloomberg reporters Matthew Campbell and Kit Chellel piece together the astounding truth behind one of the most brazen financial frauds in history.

Article: Met Oeigoerse dwangarbeid gemaakte vis ligt ook in Nederlandse schappen
https://www.nu.nl/economie/6285253/met-oeigoerse-dwangarbeid-gemaakte-vis-ligt-ook-in-nederlandse-schappen.html
Zo krijgen Nederlandse importeurs onder andere kabeljauw, tong en koolvis geleverd van Chinese bedrijven die gebruikmaken van dwangarbeid. Het gaat om mensen uit de West-Chinese regio Xinjiang, waar veel Oeigoeren wonen die door de Chinese staat zwaar worden onderdrukt. Zij worden uit hun regio weggehaald en moeten verplicht aan de slag bij de visserijbedrijven.

LOGINK, 2e kamer vragen
https://www.tweedekamer.nl/kamerstukken/kamervragen/detail?id=2023Z04278&did=2023D18889
Antwoord op vragen vragen van de leden Brekelmans, Koerhuis, Rajkowski en Valstar over het bericht ‘‘Verdachte’ Chinese kranen staan ook in Nederlandse havens: zorgen om spionage’

Supply Chain Alternatives if Climate Change-driven Water Shortages Persist at the Panama Canal
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/supply-chain-alternatives-ocean-shipping-if-climate-change-driven-water-shortages-persist


A severe drought is currently affecting the Panama Canal and, exacerbated by the weather pattern known as El Niño, water shortages are likely to persist well into 2024. For each ship transiting the canal, approximately 52 million gallons of water are needed to operate the sets of locks ascending from the Pacific Ocean toward Gatun Lake in Panama (the highest point of the canal at 85 feet above sea level) and descending again to sea level on the Atlantic Ocean side. The water required comes from Gatun Lake, an artificial lake built to service the canal, and other smaller sources. Because the drought has lowered lake water levels, a depth limit of 44 feet — 4 to 5 feet lower than normal — has been imposed on ships transiting the canal, and daily crossings have been reduced from 36 to 32, contributing to a backlog of 264 ships as of mid-August.

Securing Maritime Data: The Battle Against China’s LOGINK
https://centerformaritimestrategy.org/publications/securing-maritime-data-the-battle-against-chinas-logink-in-u-s-and-european-ports/


LOGINK is a unified digital logistics and trade platform administered by China’s Ministry of Transport. Initially developed in 2007 as a provincial initiative, it expanded regionally in 2010. Four years later, it became a global platform. Today, China continues to encourage entities like ports, freight carriers, and others to adopt LOGINK by providing it for free. The platform aggregates data from over 450,000 users in China, five million trucks, over 200 logistics warehouses worldwide, and dozens of ports in China and abroad, in addition to several other databases. With all this data, the platform “provides users with a one-stop shop for logistics data management and shipment tracking.” Due to the newness of logistics management platforms, China’s effort to obtain a first-mover advantage is significant. It could allow China to set the rules of the game.

Meanwhile, LOGINK has agreements with at least 24 ports, freeports, and port operators outside of China. Of these, nine ports are located in Europe. None are located in the U.S. Paying attention only to LOGINK’s direct agreements with foreign ports, however, does not tell the whole story. It is also necessary to look at its rapidly growing repertoire of partnerships across the world. For example, LOGINK has a data-sharing arrangement with CargoSmart, a shipping management software provider, which is in turn owned by COSCO through its subsidiary Orient Overseas International Limited (OOIL). According to Chinese news sources, this partnership provided LOGINK with “access to data on live movements of more than 90 percent of the world’s container ships through CargoSmart.” A second partnership with CaiNiao, a global logistics giant with over 200 warehouses globally and a rapidly expanding European presence, has also given LOGINK an edge. Other relevant partnerships exist with Portbase in the Netherlands and Maqta in the UAE.

CargoSmart; Company Website
https://www.cargosmart.com/en-us/
We deliver high quality data through reliable SaaS solutions and highly secure environment that allow customers to improve visibility, productivity, and collaboration. CargoSmart‘s solutions are available on application and integration to enable parties with varied technological capabilities, business needs, and roles in the shipment process to manage their shipments with multiple carriers throughout the shipment cycle and seamlessly connect to their network of suppliers, customers, logistics service providers, ocean carriers, and other business divisions.?

Article; China’s LOGINK Logistics Platform
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/research/chinas-logink-logistics-platform-and-its-strategic-potential-economic-political-and


LOGINK began in 2007 as a provincial-level truck and logistics tracking system in Zhejiang and by 2009 was expanding to all Chinese provinces, a process that unfolded alongside efforts to establish a unified document submission portal. In 2010, LOGINK began to incorporate data from the Northeast Asia Logistics Information Service Network (NEAL-NET), which initially covered container ship operations in the ports of Ningbo-Zhoushan (PRC), Tokyo-Yokohama (Japan), and Busan (South Korea). Six years later, the network included 11 Chinese ports, five Japanese ports, and three South Korean ports.

Fast forward to today, and LOGINK has become a world-scale information and intelligence funnel aggregating data from more than 450,000 users in China, 5 million trucks, multiple public databases in China, more than 200 Cainiao logistics warehouses worldwide, CargoSmart (which live tracks more than 90% of global container ships), Chinese domestic ports, and up to two dozen foreign ports.

Access to foreign port community systems amplifies LOGINK’s data haul. LOGINK’s cooperation agreements and partnerships include PortBase (Netherlands), Maqta (UAE), and Network of Trusted Networks data from the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA), whose members include tens of ports worldwide. Port community systems offer a critical entry point because once LOGINK is plugged into their data streams, PRC firms will not even necessarily need a physical presence at a given point in the supply chain to achieve significant data visibility and insights into cargo flows. With such expansive tentacles, LOGINK provides the most comprehensive picture available of national — and increasingly, global — logistics activities and, according to one analyst, is a decade ahead of rival information systems.

PDF; LOGINK: Risks from China’s Promotion of a Global Logistics Management Platform
https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/LOGINK-Risks_from_Chinas_Promotion_of_a_Global_Logistics_Management_Platform.pdf
As part of a broader effort to become a transportation superpower,* China aims to create an efficient, integrated platform for the transmission of logistics data called the National Transportation and Logistics Public Information Platform, branded as LOGINK. Beginning as a Chinese provincial initiative in 2007, LOGINK became part of a regional network in Northeast Asia in 2010 and a global platform after 2014. The state-sponsored and -supported platform has now expanded to partner with over 20 ports worldwide as well as numerous Chinese and international companies.

LOGINK provides users with a one stop shop for logistics data management, shipment tracking, and information exchange needs between enterprises as well as from business to government. China’s government is encouraging global ports, freight carriers and forwarders, and other countries and entities to adopt LOGINK by providing it free of charge. In addition to offering LOGINK itself as a platform for data management, China is promoting logistics data standards that would support the platform’s widespread use. A second generation of LOGINK, now under development, would offer a cloud-based suite of enterprise software applications, such as advanced data analytics and business partner relationship management tools. These upgrades would afford LOGINK even greater access to global commercial data, potentially giving China’s government an unparalleled window into commercial transactions and trading relationships.

Widespread adoption of LOGINK could create economic and strategic risks for the United States and other countries. As with other Chinese entities sponsored or subsidized by the government, LOGINK could undercut U.S. firms that provide more innovative products at higher costs without state support. LOGINK’s visibility into global shipping and supply chains could also enable the Chinese government to identify U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities and to track shipments of U.S. military cargo on commercial freight. Though LOGINK claims users can share only the data they want, the security of the platform is unclear. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could potentially gain access to and control massive amounts of sensitive business and foreign government data through LOGINK.

Outlaw Ocean: The China Report
https://www.theoutlawocean.com/investigations/china-the-superpower-of-seafood/


Since then, China has invested heavily in its fleet. The country now catches more than five billion pounds of seafood a year through distant-water fishing, the biggest portion of it squid. China’s seafood industry, which is estimated to be worth more than thirty-five billion dollars, accounts for a fifth of the international trade, and has helped create fifteen million jobs. The Chinese state owns much of the industry—including some twenty per cent of its squid ships—and oversees the rest through the Overseas Fisheries Association. Today, the nation consumes more than a third of the world’s fish.

Global data centers mapped
https://baxtel.com/map

Article; AI Data Ingestion
https://comics.packagex.io/p/ai-data-ingestion
According to a recent survey by Freightos, 95% of supply chain professionals think AI will impact logistics but only 7% are actively using it. Perhaps the largest barrier to entry to adopting AI is reliance on pen and paper, which 50% of companies still use to manage logistics operations.

Article, California's new supply chain laws
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/07/newsom-california-climate-disclosure-00120474
Taken together, the laws will change the landscape for corporate disclosure. For the first time in the U.S., large publicly traded and privately held corporations doing business in California will need to make public both their impact on the environment, including Scope 3 emissions or those generated through a company’s value chain, and how climate change is impacting their bottom line.

Paper; Mapping the realignment of global value chains
https://www.bis.org/publ/bisbull78.htm

The latest firm-level network data reveal that global value chains have lengthened, although without the accompanying network densification that might indicate that supplier relationships are diversifying.

Lengthening of supply chains is especially significant for supplier-customer linkages from China to the United States, where firms from other jurisdictions, notably in Asia, have interposed themselves in the supply chain.

Nevertheless, these recent developments have not so far reversed the long-running trend toward greater regional integration of trade in recent decades, especially in Asia.

Milk Traced
https://www.mijnmelk.nl


'Mijn Melk', literally 'My Milk', is a small scale Dutch initiative through which four dairy farmers sell their milk through supermarket chains with the promise of full traceability. The packaging of a product is personalized to the farm which takes the seriously the notion of traceability as a process of giving identity to what is produced in bulk.

On the top of the bottle there is a QR code which can be scanned and which resolves to the following url: https://mijnboerderij.mijnmelk.nl/?f=8D8F970C4BB1&b=R2337701.

This leads us to an attractive webpage (which can be used without a mouse?!) that tells us many things about the product:

-The name and location of farm
-The name of the farmer
-The date and time the cow was milked
-The time the milk was bottled
-Batch number of the milk
-What weather it was at the day of milking
-Average fat, protein and lactose contents
-How many cows the farms has
-How often the cows have been milked the last 24 hours

With just 4 farms involved the approach is boutique but hopefully it can and will scale.

Transparent milk straight from the farm
https://www.mijnmelk.nl/nieuws/melk-van-de-boerderij-transparant-en-traceerbaar-met-online-data/
nsumenten worden steeds kritischer en dus ook sceptischer. Wij willen graag het verhaal van de boer vertellen. Wij zijn trots op onze processen en producten. We hebben een heleboel data beschikbaar omdat onze boeren gebruikmaken van onder andere melkrobots die meten wanneer de koe gemolken is en wat de waardes van de melk zijn. Tegelijkertijd weten we dat consumenten behoefte hebben aan openheid. Dus waarom zouden we informatie die we hebben niet op een begrijpelijke manier inzichtelijk maken?

Database on reported incidents of abandonment of seafarers
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/seafarers/seafarersBrowse.Home?p_lang=en
This database contains a regularly updated list of vessels that have been reported to the ILO as abandoned in various ports of the world by appropriate organizations. It specifically includes information on seafarers and fishers, who have been abandoned and their current status.

Marine Sand Watch
https://unepgrid.ch/en/marinesandwatch
This platform monitors large vessels dredging sand, sediment and rock in the marine environment all around the world using the “automatic identification system (AIS)” emitted by dredging vessels, which provides identifying information and their real time position. This platform provides all stakeholders including Member States and the dredging sector with the required data and information to engage in talks with UNEP on how to improve dredging standards around the world.

Avikus; Company Website
https://www.avikus.ai
Autonomous shipping

Yara Birkeland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Yara_Birkeland


MV Yara Birkeland is an autonomous 120 TEU container ship carrying fertilizer between ports at Herøya and Brevik in Norway. The Yara Birkeland was designed to serve as a proof of concept for a fully autonomous ship capable of global travel and with multiple functions from industrial site operations to port operations.

One company nickel supply chain
https://nornickel.com/business/on-the-map/


Nornickel is the leader in the metals and mining industry in Russia and globally

Report; Forced evictions at industrial cobalt and copper mines in the Democratic Republic of the Con
https://www.amnesty.nl/content/uploads/2023/09/EMBARGOED_EN-version-Powering-Change-or-Business-as-Usual.pdf


This trend is driving the demand for other raw materials. Electric vehicles and energy storage facilities require vast and increasing amounts of mined metals, including copper and cobalt. According to the International Energy Agency, copper is the most widely used mineral in clean energy technologies, while cobalt is an essential mineral for most lithium-ion batteries. Expectations of accelerating demand for these two minerals are behind the increase in industrial mining in and around the city of Kolwezi, in the southern province of Lualaba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where many of the country’s most productive cobalt and copper mines are located. The DRC holds the seventh largest reserves of copper globally and is the third largest producer. It also holds approximately half of the world’s cobalt reserves and accounts for more than 70% of global production. The people living in the region should be benefiting from the growth in mining. Instead, many are being forced out of their homes and farmland to make way for the expansion of large-scale industrial mining projects. As this report shows, such evictions are often carried out by mining operators with little concern for the rights of affected communities and little heed for national laws meant to curtail forced evictions in the mining sector.

Article; Why shipping should be worried about soaring ocean temperatures
https://splash247.com/why-shipping-should-be-worried-about-soaring-ocean-temperatures


The biggest threat to the commercial shipping sector from the warming seas will be the increased frequency and intensity of weather hazards driven by ocean warming. These include more intense hurricanes, heavier rainfall and snowstorms as well as shifts in weather patterns so much so that some areas face rainstorms and flooding while others face worsening drought conditions and wildfire risks. There is no need to look further than the drought and water shortages at the Panama Canal which make passage through the canal less reliable and delay vessels.

GCaptain; shipping news
https://gcaptain.com/
Maritime and offshore news

Bosphorus Observer
https://bosphorusobserver.com/
Obsessive ship-spotting by the Bosphorus

Article; Microchips in the Parmigiano
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/microchips-in-the-parmigiano-and-other-ways-europeans-are-fighting-fake-food/ar-AA1fn7ct
New methods to guarantee the origin of products are being used across the EU. Some wineries are putting serial numbers, invisible ink and holograms on their bottles. So-called DNA fingerprinting of milk bacteria pioneered in Switzerland, which isn’t in the EU, is now being tested inside the bloc as a method for identifying cheese. QR codes are also proliferating, including on individual portions of pre-sliced Prosciutto di San Daniele, a raw ham similar to Prosciutto di Parma. A smartphone can be used to show information such as how long the prosciutto has been aged and when it was sliced. Food fraud is particularly rampant for cheese and wine, but is also common with fresh and cured meats, fish and produce. In addition to fighting against products that fraudulently present themselves as the European original, the EU is also waging battles over the naming rights of cheeses and other products, trying to stop other countries from using names such as Champagne, feta and Gouda.

p-Chip; Company Website
https://p-chip.com/
p-Chip Corp. brings detailed tracking capability to physical products and materials—in a package that’s tough as nails and smaller than a grain of salt. It functions like a digital anchor for physical products, delivering breakthrough visibility and index-ability at a scalable price point.

Article; What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?
https://archive.ph/dxz2X
Earlier this year, I attended a three-day conference, in Las Vegas, conducted by the Reverse Logistics Association, a trade group whose members deal in various ways with product returns, unsold inventories, and other capitalist jetsam. The field is large and growing. Dale Rogers, a business professor at Arizona State, gave a joint presentation with his son Zachary, a business professor at Colorado State, during which they said that winter-holiday returns in the United States are now worth more than three hundred billion dollars a year.

Tanker Tracker
https://tankertrackers.com/
TankerTrackers.com is an independent online service that tracks and reports shipments of crude oil in several geographical and geopolitical points of interest.

Article, The Hidden Victims of the Shadow Fleet
https://hakaimagazine.com/news/the-hidden-victims-of-the-shadow-fleet/
As staff at the ship-tracking service Tanker Trackers noted, the Pablo had spent years smuggling Iranian oil. The vessel also featured on a list of ships under investigation for sanctions-busting by the organization United Against Nuclear Iran. It quickly became clear that for as long as Tripathi had been working on the ship, the vessel he’d called home had been smuggling oil for the Iranian regime. The ship was a member of the so-called shadow fleet, which emerged in 2018 shortly after the United States reimposed a flood of sanctions against Iran. The sanctions had been waived in 2015 as part of an international effort to end Iran’s nuclear program. But in May 2018, then-president Donald Trump reversed course. In response, Iran enlisted a fleet of vintage tankers to secretly transport its oil without US oversight.

Kavida; Company Website
https://www.kavida.ai/
Automate your supplier follow-ups, detect risks to delivery dates, track your shipments in real-time – all in one easy-to-use platform.

PDF; Fisheries and Aquaculture Certification, Standards and Ratings Ecosystem
https://www.humanrightsatsea.org/sites/default/files/media-files/2023-03/LR_HRAS_Fisheries%20Human%20Rights%20Standards_8%20MARCH%2023_v1.1.pdf
As consumers we’re led to believe we hold the power to ensure the goods we buy are not harmful to humans and the planet. In classic economics, companies simply supply what the market demands. We are ‘the market’ and it is the market that sets the price. And we are increasingly aware, in this information age, that price goes far beyond the ticket on the shelf. It’s not just what’s in the tin, but how it got there – the husbandry, the working conditions, the production process. The outcome? A plethora of labels of various certification schemes aimed at meeting that demand. But do these labels really address the true cost and help empower consumers to leverage their purchases to get what they want? This much-needed data-driven examination of labels – certification standards – within the fisheries industry shows that all is not what it might seem. It demonstrates the complexity of a solution based on voluntary standards, beginning with the plethora of schemes, each with its own criteria, inconsistent both in mandate, assessment process and enforcement. The existence of such a report, on just one industry, indicates just how unrealistic it is as a means for consumers to understand the true cost of a product and exercise our purchasing power accordingly.

Eggs can be traced
https://www.was-steht-auf-dem-ei.de/en/index.php


In the EU eggs need to be stamped with an egg code.

The first integer codes the production method:

0 = organic egg production
1 = free-range eggs
2 = deep litter indoor housing
3 = cage farming

Next comes the ISO code for the country where the egg was produced (DE/NL/DK/FR, etc).

Next comes the unique registration number of the facility where the egg was produced. This is based on national or or even local schemes.

Several tools exist to look up the code I found in my fridge.

Rare Earth Graphs from FT

Mainsheet
https://www.mainsheet.mysticseaport.org/
Mainsheet is a peer-reviewed journal of maritime history and culture, the only publication of its kind produced by an American maritime museum. It is set apart from other scholarly journals by its multi-disciplinary perspectives; its accessibility to a broad, global audience on issues past, present, and future; and its freshness of design. The editorial board represents an international team of expert scholars from various fields.

Article; Europe’s Most Important Trade Route Is at Risk From Climate Change
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/international/2023/08/02/733224.htm
The Rhine River has been a reliable shipping lane for centuries, helping spawn industrial giants along its banks. But those days are coming to an end, and the scramble is made all the more urgent as Germany’s government fails to keep pace. With water regularly receding to levels that impede shipping from late summer through the fall, companies up and down Europe’s most important trade route are rushing to adapt, underscoring how the climate crisis is hitting even advanced industrial economies.

Snofox; Company Website
https://www.snofox.com
SnoFox Sciences provides analytics focused on increasing efficiency and decreasing energy usage for the cold industrial space with no additional hardware required. Here at SnoFox, one of our core pillars is a commitment to marrying scientific pursuit and commercial value. It is with that commitment in mind that we set out to provide the first and only thermodynamically-informed data analytics platform for cold chain monitoring and preventative maintenance. At the intersection of thermodynamics, data science, and mechanical engineering, SnoFox Sciences plans to revolutionize our collective understanding of the global cold chain.

Article; Global Race for Lithium Lands in Rural Brazil
https://nacla.org/global-race-lithium-brazil
The global energy transition is set to require a staggering increase in the lithium supply. An essential element in EV batteries, demand could increase as much as 42 times over two decades according to International Energy Agency projections. Jequitinhonha Valley sits on 85 percent of Brazil's known lithium deposits, which has sparked a race to invest and develop. In May, Minas Gerais governor Romeu Zema and Brazilian federal officials traveled to Nasdaq in New York to launch the “Lithium Valley” project, looking for international investors for the lithium mining companies operating in the region. A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) A "Preserve the Environment!" sign representing the Araçuaí Environmental Secretary and Sigma Lithium (Sam Klein-Markman) The Valley of Opportunity? In promoting this investment, officials are making the case that lithium mining will remake the long-neglected region into a “valley of opportunity.” Central to that campaign is Sigma Lithium, which began production in April, the first of the new mining companies in the region to do so. Sigma promises to produce a “green” lithium using renewable energy and 90 percent recycled water, to hire local, and to voluntarily invest more than the country requires in local municipalities and environmental projects. Sigma expects its Grota do Cirilo mining site to be in production for 13 years, generating over $5 billion for the company and over $200 million in payments to local municipalities. This year, the company expects to pay around $10.7 million to Araçuaí and its neighboring town Itinga, just under a tenth of the two municipalities’ combined GDP according to data from Brazil’s 2022 census. Sigma has also instituted programs to construct wells for rural communities, create lines of microcredit for local women entrepreneurs, and pay for the preservation of local forest land. Even so, as the region appears to be undergoing a transformative lithium boom, there is growing concern about the costs for rural communities that are most vulnerable to the environmental impacts of mining, and about whether local governments can translate the presence of international mining businesses into lasting gains for the region’s residents. The Movement for People Affected by Dams (MAB) has been campaigning against the advance of lithium mining, citing inevitable environmental degradation, water-intensive practices, and the opposition of federally protected quilombo communities—settlements generally founded by escap

Article; Shortening food supply chains using forgotten crops
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/kruiprogge-zomergerst-spelt-veldje-voor-veldje-brengt-marcel-van-silfhout-de-granen-van-vroeger-terug-in-het-landschap~b7bba674/
Van Silfhout onderzocht als journalist wat er misgaat in de (lange) voedselketens van tegenwoordig. Hij besloot zelf aan de slag te gaan. Het resultaat: brood op de plank en kruiden in het veld. ‘Ik doorbreek die Berlijnse muur tussen natuur en intensieve landbouw.’

Industry Transition
https://www.industrytransition.org/
A successful transition for hard-to-abate sectors requires:

1) A level playing field globally
2)Finance for implementation
3)Accountability across value chains
4)Low-carbon technology diffusion and scale-up
5)Enabling infrastructure

Green Cement technology Tracker
https://www.industrytransition.org/green-cement-technology-tracker/
The Green Cement Technology Tracker aims to support decision-makers and experts in policy and industry, academia as well as civil society, by tracking public announcements of investments in low-carbon cement technologies and presenting them transparently in one place. The tracker currently includes carbon capture technologies. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) account for 36 percent of planned reduction levers in the GCCA 2050 Roadmap for Net Zero Carbon Concrete that forty leading cement manufacturers committed to in 2021. Upcoming steps for enhancing the tracker encompass expanding the tracker’s scope to include more technologies that reduce emissions from cement manufacturing.

Yara; Company Website
https://yaramarine.com/
Shipping emissions have grown exponentially to exceed one billion tons of CO2 each year. Future generations depend on us to reverse this emissions growth to ensure a sustainable future on this planet. At Yara Marine Technologies, our stewardship is our greatest honor, and ensuring a healthy planet for future generations is our greatest privilege. ?That is why we drive the change towards a zero-emissions industry. In the Nordic countries, we have always been at the forefront, leading the way in uncharted waters. We are pioneers, finding new ways to protect our environment. We have the skillset to create new solutions and the conviction to see them realized.

Factsheet; True Price experiment at Albert Heijn
https://static.ah.nl/binaries/ah/content/assets/ah-nl/permanent/over-ah/true-pricing-ah.pdf


Dit document beschrijft op hoofdlijnen de resultaten, aanpak, data, aannames en beperkingen van de echte prijs analyse die door True Price in opdracht van Albert Heijn is uitgevoerd. Deze analyse volgt de True Price Methodologie (ontwikkeld i.s.m. Wageningen University). Dit is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde en breed ondersteunde methode om de echte prijs van producten te berekenen. Dit document is geschreven voor lezers die meer willen weten en leren over de berekeningen.

True Price experiment at Albert Heijn To Go
https://static.ah.nl/binaries/ah/content/assets/ah-nl/core/about/duurzaamheid/paper-true-price-experiment-albert-heijn-to-go-june-4th.pdf
Albert Heijn is the market leader in supermarkets in The Netherlands. The purpose of Albert Heijn is: Together we make eating better the easy choice. For everyone. Albert Heijn wants to make a meaningful contribution to a healthy, social and sustainable society. If we want to preserve the value of food and drink for future generations, the food system will need a major overhaul. That’s why Albert Heijn wants to be crystal clear about where food comes from, how it’s made and what its ingredients are. We also want to reduce the impact of our products so that our customers can easily make sustainable choices and never doubt whether they’re doing the right thing. True Price is one of the ideas to give better insight to customers to help them make a more sustainable choice.

True Price
https://trueprice.org/
We envision a world where all products are sold for a true price. If a product is sold for a true price, then no damage is done to people or to nature: it is fully sustainable. If all products are sold for a true price, then the global economy is sustainable. We outline the philosophy behind our vision in the True Price Manifesto. We are working towards this vision by developing and releasing open-source methodology documentation.

Who owns farmer's data
https://datavaluesdigest.substack.com/p/who-owns-farmers-data
Farmers and food producers, especially in low- and middle-income countries, face immense challenges: price increases on the input end against notoriously low and unstable prices on the output end, extreme weather events, shifting consumer demand, and rapidly changing regulatory environments—to name a few. Like other industries, the agricultural sector responds to these challenges with digital technology. Think of precision agriculture technologies such as sensors and drones, which can be used to monitor crop health and optimize inputs, while AI can analyze data on weather patterns, market demand, and supply chain logistics to improve decision-making. Many of these resources, however, are restricted to large farm owners that can afford them.

Fairfood
https://fairfood.org/en/
Fairfood accelerates the change towards a sustainable food system. We develop innovative solutions that enable businesses to improve their responsible business practices. Open and attainable solutions that are designed to democratise the world of food.

Japan’s largest port stops operations after ransomware attack
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/japans-largest-port-stops-operations-after-ransomware-attack/
The Port of Nagoya, the largest and busiest port in Japan, has been targeted in a ransomware attack that currently impacts the operation of container terminals. The port accounts for roughly 10% of Japan's total trade volume. It operates 21 piers and 290 berths. It handles over two million containers and cargo tonnage of 165 million every year.

Orcascan; Company Website
https://orcascan.com/
barcode scanning app and cloud

Shipping Carriers by Market Share


“The average cost of shipping a 40ft container from eastern China to the US west coast at short notice rose from less than $2,000 to a peak of $9,699 ... In the 3 years from 2020 to 2022, the industry generated as much profit as it had during the previous 6 decades combined”

ALDI Traceability Code
https://transparantie.aldi.nl/


While it seems to have been rolled out four or five years ago, the Aldi Traceablity Tool (ATC) it is not widely known. Shown is the label of a chicken product with a QR code. Following the link or by going to the link above and pasting in:

STB230866310200180

You are shown the company and location responsible for farming, slaughtering and processing and finally the packager. Also given are the relevant certifications.

There are crucial bits of information things missing though, most of all the relevant dates. How long has this piece of chicken been in a freezer? It does show that Dutch poultry is local and has a short value chains, all companies are located close to each other. Most meat in Dutch supermarkets has a ‘Better Leven’ (better living) logo, an animal welfare scheme managed by the Dutch equivalent to the RSPCA, this product markedly does not. The ‘Beter Leven logo does not give the consumer ‘much additional information about a product. The suggestion is that by giving us more data about the product (which is a very good thing!) Aldi is potentially hiding the lesser conditions the chickens are farmed in.

Interestingly the AD newspaper ran an article in 2021 (!) that Aldi would be switching to a full product line logoed with ‘Beter Leven’ in 2023. The year has not ended yet, shall we say.

Digimarc; Company Website
https://www.digimarc.com/
Digitize every product for greater accuracy and intelligence. Ensure your products are real, right, and recyclable.

Article; Navigating the Dry Waters of the Panama Canal
https://industrytoday.com/navigating-the-dry-waters-of-the-panama-canal/
The Panama Canal, an essential artery of global trade connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, is currently grappling with a severe drought. Water levels continue to decrease, raising concerns about the potential impact on supply chains and peak season shipping. Rainfall was less than 50% of normal from February to April near the canal and the lakes that feed it, according to ACP (Autoridad del Canal de Panamá). Water levels in the larger of the two lakes that feed the canal, Lake Gatun, are projected to hit historic lows in July.

Comply or Explain
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comply_or_explain
Rather than setting out binding laws, government regulators (in the UK, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), in Germany, under the Aktiengesetz) set out a code, which listed companies may either comply with, or if they do not comply, explain publicly why they do not. The purpose of "comply or explain" is to "let the market decide" whether a set of standards is appropriate for individual companies. Since a company may deviate from the standard, this approach rejects the view that "one size fits all", but because of the requirement of disclosure of explanations to market investors, anticipates that if investors do not accept a company's explanations, then they will sell their shares, hence creating a "market sanction", rather than a legal one.

The Shipping Climate Crunch
https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/06/08/Shipping-Climate-Crunch/
“International shipping as a sector is a major source of air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions, and it is one of the only two sectors, the other being international aviation, which is not covered under the Paris climate agreement,” Laskar said. Shipping needs to adopt measures in line with the international goal of keeping global warming below 1.5 C, he said, which means moving away from using fossil-based fuels. “Currently the sector does not have that goal.”

The Amazon cut: How beef linked to deforestation is exported to Europe by major companies
https://forbiddenstories.org/the-amazon-cut-how-beef-linked-to-deforestation-is-exported-to-europe-by-major-companies/


In the cattle industry, following the supply chain can be challenging. Beef companies need livestock supplied from ranches near their slaughterhouses. Today, JBS, Marfrig and Minerva have an obligation to ensure that their direct suppliers are not involved in illegal deforestation, but before arriving at a slaughterhouse, livestock usually pass through two to three farms, sometimes more. “Farms that feed, raise, fatten and deliver animals to the slaughterhouses are becoming fewer and fewer,” Tiago Reis, a researcher at Trase, an initiative by the NGO Global Canopy and the Stockholm Environment Institute to establish greater supply chain transparency, told Forbidden Stories.

Responsible Steel
https://www.responsiblesteel.org/
We are a global not-for-profit multistakeholder standard and certification initiative. Our mission is to be a driving force in the socially and environmentally responsible production of net-zero steel, globally. Building a sustainable steel industry requires cooperation and mutual commitment from companies at all levels of the steel supply chain, representatives of civil society, and other stakeholders. We provide the forum for this multi-stakeholder approach. Our members include some of the leading players in the industry working together to minimise the impact of steel manufacturing on people and the planet.

Improvin; Company Website
https://improvin.com/
We help agri-food companies measure, report and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their own value chain. At scale.

Prewave; Company Website
https://www.prewave.com
Supply Chain Risk Intelligence Supplier monitoring for purchasing, supply chain and sustainability managers.

PDF, Final checklist for traceability in seafood
https://media.salttraceability.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/09143734/Final_Checklist_for_Governments_SALT_12_9_22.pdf


This checklist was developed to support governments in designing and implementing lasting and scalable traceability systems in their seafood sectors. It compiles insights and advice gleaned from traceability experts from five continents and 32 published resources and case studies. After reviewing findings for common themes and factors that influenced or interfered with traceability, this checklist was created for governments to consider, use, and revisit to avoid others’ “glorious failures” and work towards effective solutions. Scalable and lasting seafood traceability can be achieved by adhering to an iterative, 4-stage process outlined in this checklist and in conjunction with the Comprehensive Traceability Principles and Pathway.

Rainforest Allience certificate holder list
https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/business/certification/certificate-search-and-public-summaries/
View our database to search for all farms, farmer groups, and supply chain certificates in the Rainforest Alliance’s certification program

PDF: Towards more accurate and policy relevant footprint analyses
http://resources.trase.earth/documents/Godar%20et%20al.%20(2015)%20Ecological%20Economics.pdf
The consumption of internationally traded goods causes multiple socio-environmental impacts. Current methods linking production impacts to final consumption typically trace the origin of products back to the country level, lacking fine-scale spatial resolution. This hampers accurate calculation of trade and consumption footprints, masking and distorting the causal links between consumers' choices and their environmental impacts, especially in countries with large spatial variability in socio-environmental conditions and production impacts. Here we present the SEI-PCS model (Spatially Explicit Information on Production to Consumption Systems), which allows for fine-scale sub-national assessments of the origin of, and socio-environmental impacts embedded in, traded commodities. The method connects detailed production data at sub-national scales (e.g., municipalities or provinces), information on domestic flows of goods and in international trade. The model permits the downscaling of country-to-country trade analyses based on either physical allocation from bilateral trade matrices or MRIO models. The importance of producing more spatially-explicit trade analyses is illustrated by identifying the municipalities of Brazil from which different countries source the Brazilian soy they consume. Applications for improving consumption accounting and policy assessment are discussed, including quantification of externalities of consumption, consumer labeling, trade leakages, sustainable resource supply and traceability

Trase.earth
https://www.trase.earth
Trase is a data-driven transparency initiative that is revolutionising our understanding of the trade and financing of commodities driving deforestation worldwide. Its unique supply chain mapping approach brings together disparate, publicly available data to connect consumer markets to deforestation and other impacts on the ground. Trase’s freely-available online tools and actionable intelligence enable companies, financial institutions, governments and civil society organisations to take practical steps to address deforestation.

SEI-PCS: Spatially Explicit Information on Production to Consumption Systems
https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sei-2019-p2cs-summary-sei-pcs.pdf


Countries, companies and individual consumers are increasingly aware that their consumption could be linked, via supply chains, to environmental and social sustainability impacts in distant parts of the world. However, most of the footprinting methods available prior to 2015 critically lacked detail – of the connections between consumption and production, and of how particular commodity flows were linked to sustainability issues in specific production sites. Instead, they estimated footprints at country level, based on assumptions and macroeconomic figures.

This limited their value for policymaking, attributing responsibility and taking preventive action, given the often localized nature of issues like deforestation, as well as the heterogeneity of landscapes and vulnerability that can exist, particularly in large countries like Brazil. br>
SEI-PCS (for Spatially Explicit Information on Production to Consumption Systems) is a modeling approach developed at SEI.1 SEI-PCS allows for fine-scale subnational assessments of the origin of traded commodities and the socio-environmental impacts embedded in them, such as carbon emissions, local pollution or biodiversity loss. It recreates supply chains and attributes sustainability impacts to commodity flows and actors, using a combination of detailed production data at subnational scales, information on domestic trade flows, customs data and international trade flows between countries.

Trase Supply Chains
https://supplychains.trase.earth/


Trase is at the forefront of a data-driven revolution in supply chain sustainability, drawing on vast sets of production, trade and customs data, for the first time laying bare the flows of globally traded commodities at scales that are directly relevant to decision-making. Its pioneering approach to data analysis and visualization provides full coverage of the export routes and buyers responsible for all production and trade, and the associated sustainability risks, of a given commodity.

The supply chain mapping at the core of Trase balances scale and data resolution. It builds on an enhanced form of material flow analysis called Spatially Explicit Information on Production to Consumption Systems (SEI-PCS) originally developed by Godar et al. 2015. Three capabilities of the Trase approach together set it apart from other approaches to supply chain mapping:

It systematically links individual supply chain actors to specific, subnational production regions, and the sustainability risks and investment opportunities associated with those regions;

It identifies the individual companies that export, ship and import a given traded commodity; and

It covers all of the exports of a given commodity from a given country of production.

mapping sei-pcs traceability transparency trase | permalink | 2023-05-30 11:10:47

Earthworm.org
https://www.earthworm.org/
Earthworm Foundation is a non-profit organisation built on values and driven by the desire to positively impact the relationship between people and nature. With most of our staff operating directly on the ground where the issues are, we work with our members and partners to make value chains an engine of prosperity for communities and ecosystems. We see a world where forests are a boundless source of materials and a home for biodiversity; communities see their rights respected and have opportunities to develop; workers are seen as productive partners, and agriculture becomes the instrument to feed a hungry planet and keep our climate stable.

Value of Crime
https://trace-and-traceability.org/img/c088c23d-fefa-4236-99b0-7b8aa44fa44a_1080x956.png

IFT’s Tech-Enabled Traceability Insights Based on the FDA’s Low- or No-Cost Traceability Challenge S
https://www.ift.org/-/media/gftc/pdfs/ift-tech-insights-fda-nolowcost-traceability-report-2023.pdf


As an activity under the New Era for Smarter Food Safety blueprint, the goal of the Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability Challenge was to encourage development of innovative approaches for scalable, cost-effective food traceability solutions to advance widespread implementation of tech-enabled traceability systems throughout the supply chain. This report documents these efforts.

The Global Food Traceability Center
Global Food Traceability Center
The Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC) conducts applied research; develops resources, tools, and training; and offers customizable services to help industry, regulators, and NGOs implement end-to-end, event-based, interoperable traceability to solve challenges and opportunities across the supply chain.

Inside the murky trade of Russian oil
https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/stop-russian-oil/inside-murky-trade-russian-oil/
What links the port of Bristol, a Gujarati refinery, Gatwick airport, and a converted courthouse in the sleepy town of Grays, Essex? The answer is Russian oil, thanks to the increasingly murky trade going underground to keep Vladimir Putin’s most important export flowing around the world.

Open Source Intelligence against deforestation
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/a-twitter-bot-tracks-meat-production-in-the-brazilian-amazon/


An online tool developed last year by the NGO Global Witness aims to monitor and expose deforestation linked to the indirect supply chain of Brazilian meat company JBS.

Brazil Big Beef Watch, a Twitter bot, uses satellite data and cattle transit permit data to identify whether a ranch where deforestation was detected is part of JBS’s supply chain.

Environmentalists have often criticized JBS, the world’s biggest meat producer, for being opaque about its indirect supply chain and its inability to take action.

The new tool, Global Witness says, aims to serve as a way to call on JBS to take action and for the company’s financers to stop backing it until JBS can prove that its supply chain is deforestation-free.

FAIRR; Company Website
https://www.fairr.org
The world's fastest-growing investor network focusing on ESG risks in the global food sector

Keogh's Spud Nav
https://www.keoghs.ie/spud-nav/


A food company that aims to inform its customers about the origin of its products often faces practical challenges when production scales. The inverse of this is that a small company can add value to a customer in an endearing manner. The best example to date is the Irish Chip company Keogh's product finder SpudNav. Each Keogh's bag contains the name of the field where the potato was grown, the name of the cook of the chip. Using SpudNav you can then find the location of the farm, a picture and bio of the cook (in our case Darren, something of the Gordon Ramsey of chip making) and it even gives you information on the origin of additional ingredients like vinegar and butter at faarm level.

Paper; Global mining footprint mapped from high-resolution satellite imagery
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-023-00805-6


Mining is of major economic, environmental and societal consequence, yet knowledge and understanding of its global footprint is still limited. Here, we produce a global mining land use dataset via remote sensing analysis of high-resolution, publicly available satellite imagery. The dataset comprises 74,548 polygons, covering ~66,000?km2 of features like waste rock dumps, pits, water ponds, tailings dams, heap leach pads and processing/milling infrastructure.

New study reveals fine detail on location and scale of mining sites worldwide
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/new-study-reveals-fine-detail-on-location-and-scale-of-mining-sites-worldwide/
We live at the center of a spiderweb of global mining supply chains. The vehicle that took you to the market, the rechargeable battery in your headphones, and the phone or computer you’re reading this article on right now — all required the extraction, processing, transport and sale of minerals that likely originated from points all over the planet. But measuring the cumulative impact of these supply chains, which can span multiple continents and involve dozens of entities, formal and informal, is a tricky business. A new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment may have just given a big boost to anyone looking for a clear picture of what those supply chains look like at their point of origin. Using high-resolution satellite data, researchers meticulously pored over images from across the globe, isolating and marking the boundaries of a combined 65,585 square kilometers (25,323 square miles) of mining sites. The data set, which includes large-scale mining operations as well as informal artisanal sites, is one of the most detailed ever created. And to make sure that others can build off their work, the study’s authors have made it available to the public for free.

Shipping lanes and harbour movements animation
https://mastodon.online/@CopernicusEU@respublicae.eu/110344470347059058


This animation uses Sentinel1 radar data acquired between 2020 and 2023 to showcase shipping lanes and harbour movements in the Strait Of Gibraltar. It also provides insights into the traffic patterns at the Port of Algeciras.

Simroute
https://marine.copernicus.eu/services/use-cases/simroute-comprehensive-ship-weather-routing-system-using-copernicus-marine
The aim of SIMROUTE software is to provide a comprehensive, open and easy tool including pre- and post-processing for ship weather routing simulations. The software is constructed considering the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service wave predictions systems which are available for free use. The code provides the optimized route and the minimum distance route together with additional modules to compute ship emission and safety on navigation monitoring.

Article; Leefbaar loon voor theeplukkers lijkt uit zicht na overname van Unilevers theedivisie
https://www.ftm.nl/artikelen/leefbaar-loon-voor-unilevers-theeplukkers-uit-zicht?share=MuxZbTTOr6W5BG7HAaXhNkG2zyTrpkz2U1Zu46dabMF2fTfxbuhc0iqONXNCQZs%3D
Na een jarenlange stroom van misstanden in de productieketen en stokkende omzet verkocht Unilever zijn theebusiness, met merken als Lipton en Pukka, vorig jaar aan private equity investeerder CVC Capital. Voor kwetsbare theeplukkers in de keten werd het er niet beter op. ‘Dit zal de problemen die er nu al in de theesector zijn verergeren, zoals uitbuiting, lage lonen en misbruik.’

Boxxport; Company Website
https://www.boxxport.com/
BOXXPORT lets you trade worldwide, buy and sell containers in an open marketplace that’s completely intuitive to navigate. You’ll optimize your processes and increase profitability from the very first moment of use.

Gryn; Company Website
https://www.gryn.com/
Discover the biggest carbon emission drivers to start your net-zero strategy (journey). GRYN automatically collects all data sets from your stakeholders via API – or simply drag and drop your excel files.

Supplyz; Company Website
https://www.supplyz.eu/
We provide the infrastructure to track & trace goods in real-time. We do this to to reduce waste along the supply chain and therefore save cost.

BoxID; Company Website
https://box-id.com/en/
BOX ID makes flows of goods and containers visible across locations and uses them to generate control data for your logistics.

APM Terminals; Company Website
https://www.apmterminals.com/en
APM Terminals operates one of the world’s most comprehensive port networks. We’re uniquely positioned to help both shipping line and landside customers grow their business. Through our global roll-out of real-time digital tools such as Track & Trace and Container Status Notifications, APIs, and Terminal Alerts we're supporting our customers to improve supply chain efficiency, flexibility and dependability.

Opsealog; Company Website
https://opsealog.com/
Opsealog is a maritime technology company that specializes in fleet digitalization and performance management. We help Charterers, Shipowners, and other Maritime & Energy stakeholders optimize their operations, comply with regulations, and leave a smaller footprint on the environment.

Building a Transparent Supply Chain, with Blockchain
https://hbr.org/2020/05/building-a-transparent-supply-chain
Led by companies such as Walmart and Procter & Gamble, considerable advancement in supply chain information sharing has taken place since the 1990s, thanks to the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, visibility remains a challenge in large supply chains involving complex transactions. To illustrate the limitations of the current world of financial-ledger entries and ERP systems, along with the potential benefits of a world of blockchain, let us describe a hypothetical scenario: a simple transaction involving a retailer that sources a product from a supplier, and a bank that provides the working capital the supplier needs to fill the order. The transaction involves information flows, inventory flows, and financial flows. Note that a given flow does not result in financial-ledger entries at all three parties involved. And state-of-the-art ERP systems, manual audits, and inspections can’t reliably connect the three flows, which makes it hard to eliminate execution errors, improve decision-making, and resolve supply chain conflicts.

Article; How Rana Plaza catalyzed a transparency movement and the lessons learned on opening data at
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-rana-plaza-catalyzed-transparency-movement-lessons-grillon/
April 24, 2023 marked the 10 year anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, an industrial tragedy of unprecedented scale in which over 1,110 people died and more than 2,500 were left injured. In the immediate aftermath, activists on the ground dug through rubble trying to find clothing with tags to identify who might be held accountable. The collapse left families forever changed; husbands, wives, sisters and brothers lost; children left without mothers. While the conditions which led to the accident and the longer term worker advocacy efforts which followed have, rightly, been widely covered elsewhere, the accident led to a shift in the apparel sector. It catapulted issues of abuse and neglect in apparel supply chains into the global public consciousness, giving campaigners who had been active in this sector for many years previously a more visible platform for their activism. What did this look like in practice?

Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices (cfrpp)
https://www.cfrpp.org/
Building resilience in supply chains through responsible purchasing practices Responsible purchasing practices are essential to achieve the improvements in factory working conditions that many brands and retailers have publicly committed to. Improved purchasing practices will contribute to preventing harm and facilitating both social and environmental improvements in the supply chain.

Promoting human rights and environmental due diligence in global supply chains
https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/122202.html
The project enables buyers and manufacturers, particularly in the textile and electronics industry, to live up to their joint responsibility to people and the environment. An integrated fund focuses on promoting projects with EU member states, development partners, the private sector and civil society.