Title
Brief description
Food is a central part of our everyday lives. There is already a large amount of data available on foods’ climate-effects and, with this data, a
huge possibility to steer behaviour of both food service providers and consumers towards climate-neutrality.
Restaurants recognize the need to become climate-neutral. They are aware of their environmental and climate effects and, more and more, aim to actively decrease them. In addition, they recognize the financial potential of serving climate-neutral options for consumers.
The Climate Meal label helps restaurants and their customers identify meals from the menu that have a smaller-than-average carbon footprint. Restaurants were invited to join the initiative through a campaign by providing them with the Climate Meal label, including tools for calculating the carbon footprint of their dishes, and tools for communication about their commitment.
Becoming climate-friendly is easier for bigger restaurants and restaurant chains who have, e.g. their own carbon footprint tracking systems and programs and possibilities to affect the whole supply chain. Small and medium sized enterprises often lack resources and know-how to become climate friendly. The Climate Meal label is targeted especially for SMEs.
The campaign was run through a project under Forum Virium which is an innovation company owned by the city of Helsinki. Helsinki, with its canteen chain Palmia, took part in the campaign.
Keywords
food service business; climate neutrality;
restaurants; SME’s; consumer
City/Country
Time period
Campaign from 25.10.2021 to 28.11.2021
Lever(s)
Methodologies
The Climate Meal label can be given to a meal made from ingredients that have a combined carbon footprint of no more than 1.0 kg CO2e,
which is roughly 30% less than the Finnish average.
Restaurants taking part in the campaign were provided with Clonet Oy’s OpenCO2.net-based Climate Calculator for meals, in addition to which
they had free access to Unilever Food Solutions’ CO2 calculator. Customers of Jamix, a cloud- based kitchen intelligence system, could take part by utilising the service’s own carbon footprint calculator.
World Region
Scale(s) of the case analysed
Target audience and dimension
Domain(s) of application
Context addressed
Solution applied
Challenge addressed/ Problem-led approach
Barriers addressed
Main Practices
Impact
Co benefits
Engagement Journey
Impact to climate neutrality
Restaurants recognize the need to become climate-neutral. They are aware of their environmental and climate effects and, more and more, aim to actively decrease them. In addition, they recognize the financial potential of serving climate-neutral options for consumers.
Becoming climate-friendly is easier for bigger restaurants and restaurant chains who have, e.g. their own carbon footprint tracking systems and programs and possibilities to affect the whole supply chain. Small and medium sized enterprises often lack resources and know-how to become climate friendly. The Climate Meal label is targeted especially for SMEs. SMEs are provided with expertise, support and tools to plan, advertise and offer climate friendly meals in their menu.
In addition, customers are interested in consuming climate-friendly options. People are eating out more and consuming food-delivery services, thusrestaurants are a practical tool to affect customers’ choices, especially in cities. The recognisable Climate Meal label provides customers with information about climate-friendly choices and an easy way to lower their own carbon footprint.
The participating restaurants stated that the demand for vegetarian food increased during the campaign. As such, Climate Meal Label helps to build and promote carbon-neutral infrastructure and lifestyle. It supports the business to become climate-friendly and new ways to support customers in their climate-friendly choices.
Context & Public policy of reference
Innovative approach(es) addressed
Food is a central part of our everyday lives. There is already a large amount of data available on the foods climate-effects and, with this data, a huge possibility to steer behaviour of both food service providers and consumers towards climate-neutrality. Especially lunch restaurants, where the Climate Meal concept was mainly adopted, are key players because people find it easier to make good choices during lunch time.
Climate Meal label is a way to support SMEs’ own capacities to affect that part of their production chain where it is easiest to achieve impact without large resources. It is building on existing expertise and resources. The participating restaurants were provided with carbon footprint calculators and support in using them. Support was provided for communicating their commitment to customers (communication toolkit and using the existing Climate Meal brand on the menu). The campaign gave restaurants an opportunity to experiment with carbon footprint calculators as part of their operations and challenged them to make changes to the menus.
Restaurants can continue using the Climate Meal label also after the campaign. The label can be taken into use by registering at ilmastoannos.fi and agreeing to calculate the carbon footprints of their climate meals.
Through a joint Climate Meal brand, it is supporting the joint action of restaurants in working towards climate neutrality targets.
Initiator
The Climate Meal campaign is part of the Mission Zero Foodprint project (under Forum Virum, an Innovation company owned by the city of Helsinki), which aims to help restaurants and other food service businesses to become carbon-neutral in the future. The project was funded by the European Regional Development Fund and the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council.
Stakeholder networks and organisational model
Original idea was to get 20 restaurants involved. In the end, 60 restaurants showed commitment. The campaign did not map how many consumers were finally engaged.
Democratic Purpose
Participant Recruitment
nteraction between participants
Resources
Key enablers
The project gained momentum through general interest of restaurants and customers to make climate-friendly choices. Restaurants were keen to get tools and support for their actions.
Political: climate neutrality targets are on the agenda and of interest for both private businesses and their customers. The urgency was recognized and restaurants were looking for support.
Economic: Society is more and more service oriented and people are eating out. Therefore the development of climate friendly food services is interesting for both customers and restaurants. Providing the Climate Meal brand helps both providers and users of services to align their actions and find each other. Climate friendly options also give commercial value and responsible businesses are considered as attractive for customers.
In addition, the campaign helped Clonet Oy to get their OpenCO2.net-based Climate Calculator for meals into the markets and the need for similar services is growing.
Social: The campaign helped restaurants and their kitchen staff to understand which elements affect the carbon footprint of food. Data available was used to orient people to make climate-friendly choices through the Climate Meal Label.
Technical: Data of carbon footprint of food was available and calculators ready for use.
Key inhibiting factors
The campaign suffered from Covid-pandemics since many restaurants had to close or cut costs during the campaign. The campaign raised interest but some restaurants had to say no due to a lack of resources. In general, SME’s have smaller resources to invest in climate friendly options.
The campaign was relatively short and therefore some of the restaurants could not take part at such a short notice.
Drawbacks/pros/cons of the solutions (after implementation)
Scalability
The project created the campaign and a concept that is now openly available. The concept could be adapted in different cities and countries since the calculators are free to use.
Cities and funders should be invited to further develop the concept and the Climate Meal could be used also in cities marketing and branding (project had been discussing with Visit Finland how to collaborate).
Key lessons
Main positive lessons/opportunities identified
- The consumption of vegetarian food in the partnering restaurants grew higher during the campaign when the meals were introduced as Climate Meals.
- It was important that restaurants had a clear interest in developing their own processes. Climate Meal label provides a tool for their internal development.
- Campaign was a good format since it raised discussion.
Choice of menu ingredients is a concrete way to empower restaurant staff to realize how easy it is to make climate friendly choices simply by altering the menu ingredients.
Main failures/barriers identified
- Covid situation set limitations for restaurants.
Restaurants vary in their size and tools should be tailored for different sizes of restaurants. Tools should be free or at least reasonably priced so that SME’s can afford them. They have to provide clear added market value for the restaurants.
Indicators
No customer feedback was monitored. Restaurants were consulted qualitatively. |
External link
https://ilmastoannos.fi/en/climate-meal/
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