Coolfood – World Resources Institute’s (WRI) initiative for curbing diet-related emissions – provides the food service industry with the tools and expertise to reduce emissions by 25% by 2030, in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
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The Fridge Night programme offers simple, practical solutions to help people be more resourceful with and enjoy eating the food they have at home, thereby reducing food waste and associated greenhouse gas emissions. Participants pledge to use up expiring perishables one evening a week for a month, and complete weekly challenges. They are sent reminders and tips. In return, they save time and money and get tools for easily planning meals with leftovers.
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According to Second Harvest, almost 60% (35.5 million metric tonnes) of food produced in Canada is wasted annually. Roughly 32% (1.2 million tonnes) is still edible. The app informs users about local food nearing its best before date, often discounted by 50% or more. While some items may only be usable for a day or two, others can last for weeks – especially if frozen or cooked. The Flashfood app enables food stores to sell food that would otherwise be thrown out, while reducing their carbon footprint. Consumers are able buy food that they would otherwise deem too expensive.
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About 75% of food waste goes to landfill, where it becomes one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions at 10% of total emissions. Too Good to Go turns food waste into a win-win situation for everyone, by creating jobs, generating revenue, reducing food waste, and diminishing environmental impacts. At its most basic, the app is a marketplace for surplus food. It enables you to see what extra food is likely to be available that day from nearby bakeries, stores, and restaurants - fresh food that would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day because it would no longer be considered fresh and salable. Using the app, you can buy a ‘magic bag’ meal for roughly one third of what you would normally pay, then pick it up at the vendor’s closing time. As of June 2022, a total of 141 million bags had been sold, eliminating 775 million lb. (about 387,500 US tons) of CO2 emissions. In the first six months of 2022 alone, 88.5 million bags were sold, eliminating the equivalent of 973.5 million pounds (about 486,800 US tons) of CO2 emissions per year.
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2019 Youtube Program Update Video from USGBC
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a tremendously successful program that engages builders and owners in designing, building, selling / buying and operating more energy-efficient buildings. It awards points for meeting targets and doing targeted behaviors like benchmarking and tracking energy and water consumption, using specific types of materials, and recycling waste materials. It has become the most used green building rating system out there, adopted in more than 150 countries and territories worldwide. The program received Landmark designation in 2015.
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This innovative green purchasing program engaged hundreds of event planners and over 18,000 event participants to build a new county culture of sustainable and healthy gatherings in Alameda County, California. In only six weeks, its promotion competition enrolled 192 events and meetings, reaching over 9,200 attendees with model green & healthy practices.
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Bankstown, Australia tested a range of options for reducing waste contamination.
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Keep America Beautiful created a competition called Recycle-Bowl that uses the Tools of Change to encourage recycling behavior in K-12 schools. The program has been successful at invigorating school development of and participation in recycling programs.
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This case study is a great model for increasing composting rates, reducing waste generation and reducing tonnages placed curbside for collection through coaching. It also reports on a study of diversion rates from backyard composting that showed that diversion from backyard composting is usually under-estimated.
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A great model of applying CBSM to increase participation in campus in campus recyling programs. The University of Alberta's program increased diversion 8-24% and reduced plastic contamination of organics by 16%.
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The University of Georgia, funded by the Environmental Research and Education Foundation, designed and tested a recycling bin that lit up and displayed a count with the number of items that had been placed into the bin. The bins with feedback increased recycling rates significantly.
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Fork it Over! is a peer-to-peer initiative that helps food businesses in Portland Oregon to donate surplus prepared, perishable foods that have not been served, by showing that it is safe, simple and the right thing to do. It recruits food businesses to make written, public commitments to donate food regularly, reinforces and publicizes those commitments, and prompts action at the moment when donations are available. It also leverages partnership support from key industry leaders and associations to reinforce the social and cultural value of food donation, and provides regular reinforcement for participating through free advertising.
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To find effective ways to increase public participation in recycling, two studies were undertaken in the City of Claremont, California. In each case, trained volunteers went door-to-door contacting members of non-recycling households. Two approaches were tried -one using Boy Scouts, and the other using neighbours as volunteers.
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Strathcona County organizes an annual one-day waste exchange. Staffed largely by volunteers, this free event enables people to return serviceable appliances, furniture, or other large household items to useful service by making them available for others to reuse.
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Students eating lunch at Norway Public School were exposed to an ongoing Litterless Lunch program - one that involved the participation of parents and made use of student monitors. In addition, there was an emphasis on recycling and composting throughout the school.
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This study identifies six household food waste segments: no food waste; trust in date labels; safety first; occasional wasters; overpurchasers and overpreparers; and family first. These segments differ in their sociodemographic and purchase profiles.
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This study identifies four distinct Australian consumer groups driven by different perceptions of food packaging. Although food waste is one of the largest environmental and societal issues of our day, consumers perceive packaging waste as more serious. Societal awareness of the environmental impact food waste has is clearly low and requires further work.
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This second-order meta-analysis found that the studied interventions increased associated environmental behaviors by 2% to 12%. Social comparisons and financial approaches, followed closely by appeals and commitment strategies, were the most effective interventions while education and feedback were the least effective.
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This 2013 literature review summarizes behavioral barriers, benefits and interventions related to campus / institutional energy, water and waste-related behaviors.
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History of household blue box recycling in Canada, UK, USA, and elsewhere.
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Rapidly reducing methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide emissions is necessary to maximize short-term climate benefits and stop the ongoing temperature rise.
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A summary of food waste at the consumer level, including drivers, evidence from past interventions, and program design implications.
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In 2022, there are about 2,500 Repair Cafés worldwide, where volunteer experts help repair old items that people bring in, keeping them out of landfills and saving people money.
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This report summarizes the findings of a literature review on recycling behavior, commissioned in 2020 by the U.S. Can Manufacturers Institute. The main findings focus on bin design, convenient collection, messaging and norm appeals, choice of messenger, and incentives.
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A survey of 5,000 individuals in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and U.S., found that concerns about the increasing cost of living are leading consumers to cut their spending and can be tapped to reduce residential food waste.
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Two open-access articles in Behavioral Science & Policy (7: 2) provide guidance on crafting messages to promote green behaviors. The first argues that interventions will be most effective if they not only make it easier for people to act (as behavioral science suggests) but also highlight moral reasons for taking action and assure people that their actions make a difference. The second outlines how to implement behavioral interventions that avoid crowding out support for deeper action.
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Food waste and associated greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by helping consumers embrace "ugly fruit", which is typically equivalent nutritionally to regular fruit. Read on for guidance on how to do this.
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This page highlights RARE's resources for those at the intersection of behavior and the environment.
- Behavior Change Interventions in Practice: A Synthesis of Criteria, Approaches, Case Studies, and Indicators.
- The Science of Changing Behavior for Environmental Outcomes: A Literature Review.
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This 2019 document provides a much-needed framework for managing food waste, including food surplus, food loss and food waste.It also provides an overview of the literature on drivers of in-home food waste and translate them into guidelines for effective intervention development.
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When an everyday product (e.g., paper, cups, aluminum cans) is linked to a consumer's identity it is less likely to be trashed and more likely to be recycled. Further, the tendency to recycle an identity-linked product increases with the strength and positivity of the connection between the consumer and product (or brand). (2016)
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