GreenCook – Transnational strategy for global sustainable food management (162E)

1. GreenCook – Transnational strategy for global sustainablefood management (162E) Sophie MARGULIEW Project manager Espace Environnement ASBL Thematic workshop on Priority 4Brussels, 19 May 2010

2. I4B-GreenCook – Transnational strategy for global sustainablefood management What is GreenCook about ? How did GreenCook come out ? What is innovative about GreenCook ? Why the topic could not be tackled and why the project could not be effective without transnational cooperation ? How will GreenCook benefits the Lead Partner and its Region

3. GreenCook’s objectives Aim : to reduce food wastage and to make the NWE a model of sustainable food management, by in-depth work on the consumer / food relationship thanks to a multisectoral partnership Fighting against food wastage requires to combine work on consumerbehaviour and optimisation of the food offer. By developing innovative strategies to influence the consumer and cook relationship to food, both among out-of-home food professionals, and among households.

4. 4 work directions, corresponding to 4 emblematic places of consumption, themselves connected to 4 groups of key players:  At home, in the kitchen: precarious households and audiences, waste-managing local authorities In the restaurant, in the company canteen: catering professionals  In the school canteen: teachers and pupils (education); cooks (management) At the supermarket: producers, retailers; food banks 4 workpackages that will be developed in parallel, to converge towards achieving the overall aim of the project : Workpackages

5. Workpackages • WP1 Enable • Producing facts & figures, relevant methods & tools or individuals, out-of-home food professionals, packaging designers, social workers & household coaches to avoid food wastage Behaviour change • WP4 Encourage • Assessing results to determine GreenCook standards for food wastage avoidance strategies & to reward good practices of professionals and households • WP3 Engage • Embedding good practices for food wastage avoidance by mobilising GreenCook Ambassadors and networking at a large scale • WP2 Exemplify • Testing innovative sectoral approaches and lobbying to validate European models of sustainable management of food

6. Outputs • WP1 Enable • Information publications, practical smart toolkits (Smart food saving Portal 2.0 =Investment ) • Transnational cookbook compiling best food saving recipies • Practical handbooks and training programmes + teaching kits Behaviour change • WP4 Encourage • Specific and global assessment programmes (+ indicators); facts & figures • Transnational GreenCook challenge ; GreenCook trophy • Relevant criteria on food wastage avoidance, to update labels or reward schemes • WP3 Engage • Community actions : (cooking lessons, practical training sessions, events) • Short video clips with testimonies of ambassadors • Organisation of public debates • WP2 Exemplify • Living Labs + Educational biomecanical composting system (Investment) • Dialogue Platforms meetings and memoranda • Strategic Steering Committee meetings + Expert Committee meetings (lobby)

7. How did GreenCook come about ? • INTERREG IIIB REDUCE Strategy for transnational waste reduction • Espace Environnement = Lead Partner (citizens’ participation, network cooperation) • Intercommunale de gestion des déchets de Charleroi (B), Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque (F), Communauté d’Agglomération de l’Artois (F), Syndicat Mixte SYMEVAD (F) • What next ? • Commitment for behaviour change (beyond awareness raising) • Mobilising a variety of stakeholders • Espace Environnement as Lead Partner • Partnership : EE (LP) + REDUCE partners + other French partners + a UK partner (Kent County Council) • Advice of JTS : • more focused / specific • partnership more relevant

8. The role of Espace Environnement Identify, bring together (go-between), translate Suggest, propose, orientate (structure) Convince, reassure, create win-win (transnational action plan / decision-making) Decide, impose, arbitrate (priorities, budget)

9. Innovative, specific, transnational ? ? ? ? Bulky waste Food wastage Hazardous waste Identify a more specific issue, innovative, that needs transnational cooperation to be addressed Survey of main 3 waste issues among the partners : Criteria for EU project (innovative, need for transnational cooperation to address the issue, strength of the partnership )

10. Innovative, specific, transnational ? • Identify the relevant partnership to tackle food wastage avoidance : Who are the actors ? Food producers, manufacturers, consumers • Public (local and regional) waste authorities (IBGE, Artois Comm., Kent CC, AV Ludwigsburg) • Other public authorities (canteens, underpriviledged) (CRNPDC) / NGO underpriviledged (BKCV) • Agro-industry – NO • Packaging producers and users (Fost Plus) • Supermarkets (GREENTAG – E. Leclerc) • Research Institutes (CRIOC, Univ. Stuttgart, Wageningen UR) • Restaurants (Euro-Toques, De Proeftuinen)

11. 15 months to give birth to GreenCook Jul / Aug Sept / Dec Jan / Feb March / April May / June July / August Sept / Oct New partners Negociations with new partners GreenCook Specific Innovative Food Wastage + Structure = brainstorming Kent gives up 

12. Benefits for EspaceEnvironnementand the region • Espace Environnement will gain expertise and experience : • in (EU) project management • on partners’ cooperation and networking (multi-cultural, multi-sectoral) • on food wastage issue • e.g. benefits of REDUCE • Benefits for the Region : • Pioneer experiments : opportunities to have regional problems addressed and solved in priority • Outputs, lessons learnt, results immediately usable • Bottom up feedback for regional policy orientations (e.g. waste prevention plan to come) • Sustainable communities, multi-sectoral partnerships around food

13. What is innovative about GreenCook ? 1/2 • considers the pair product-packaging and adoption of new/adapted packaging types to increase food saving  refine public authorities’ waste prevention messages • rises new professional attitudes and behaviours, e.g. cooks won’t consider any more their job done when the meals are ready, but when the meals are eaten. • demonstrates how everyone can closethe food loop • by composting unavoidable waste (e.g. fruit peelings) on site • and by using compost to grow vegetable that are used again for cooking.

14. What is innovative about GreenCook ? 2/2 • optimises the balance between offer and demand and not focusing only on one side of the issue : which offers could reduce wastage, and how to make the consumer accept it ? • influences policy by opening the dialogue with sectors, which regulations have an impact on food wastage, and by building up with them consensual solutions that can be implemented within GreenCook, • produces innovative decision-making tools, based a series of measurement that are not available today.

15. Why is transnational cooperation necessary ot tackle the issue of food wastage avoidance? 1/2 • A pathbreaking combination of partners, each with a unique, targeted expertise and legitimacy, and directly usable know-how : • Espace Environnement, a recognised co-operation organiser, is ready to support the emergence of shared innovative solutions, and recurrent trans-sectoral discussions. • The CRIOC has been scrutinising consumer behaviour for years. • Bruxelles Environnement has broken new ground on the subject via pilot studies in canteens but is struggling to adapt the dynamic to a broader scale. • The Nord-Pas de Calais Region would like to deploy a sustainable food plan in its high school canteens. It is also running a network that helps the disadvantaged to increase their life skills. • Artois Comm. and Ludwigsburg have sectoral networks for rapidly implementing the lessons learnt from the project.

16. Why is transnational cooperation necessary ot tackle the issue of food wastage avoidance? 2/2 • Euro Toques and De Proeftuinen are associations of restaurateurs who are innovative for sustainable, good quality food. • ISWA (Stuttgart) is a reference in quantifying avoidable waste. • WUR Food & Biobased Research (F&BR) manages the Restaurant of the Future, which allows to assess how consumer behaviour is affected when confronted to food and food presentation innovations. • GREENTAG is trying out environmental communication and management in three Leclerc stores. • Fost Plus is opening the doors to innovation in terms of anti-wastage packaging. • The United Kingdom, pioneer in the fight against food wastage, offers a great deal of advice via some well-informed observers. • Polling these knowledge, experience and skills will enable the partners to accelerate the trend towards common sectoral standards and to overcome current impediments, while passing harmoniously from the experimentation stage to that of generalised strategy.

17. Transnational cooperation Research Institutes Home School canteen Disadvantaged Companies Territory Producers Social groceries Caterers Supermarkets Restaurants

18. Thank you for your attention ! www.green-cook.org Sophie Marguliew Espace Environnement ASBL smarguliew@espace-environnement.be