The nutritional footprint - integrated methodology using environmental and health indicators to indicate potential for absolute reduction of natural resource use in the field of food and nutrition

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:132

Article

Lukas, Melanie¹  Rohn, Holger^1,2,3  Lettenmeier, Michael^4,5  Liedtke, Christa^1,6  Wiesen, Klaus¹ 

[1] Wuppertal Inst Climate Environm & Energy, Doppersberg 19, D-42103 Wuppertal, Germany

[2] Inst Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften gGmbH, Faktor 10, Alte Bahnhofstr 13, D-61169 Friedberg, Germany

[3] ITMO Univ, Inst Refrigerating & Biotechnol, Lomonosov Ulitsa 9, St Petersburg 191002, Russia

[4] Aalto Univ, Dept Design, Hameentie 135 C, Helsinki 00760, Finland

[5] D Mat Ltd, Purokatu 34, Lahti 15200, Finland

[6] Folkwang Univ Arts, Essen, Germany

关键词: Nutritional footprint;    Health indicators;    Environmental indicators;    Sustainable food;    Resource productivity;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.02.070

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The field of nutrition will face numerous challenges in coming decades; these arise from changing lifestyles and global consumption patterns accompanied by a high use of resources. Against this background, this paper presents a newly designed tool to decrease the effect on nutrition, the so-called Nutritional Footprint. The tool is based on implementing the concept of a sustainable diet in decision making processes, and supporting a resource-light society. The concept integrates four indicators in each of the two nutrition-related fields of health and environment, and condenses them into an easily communicable result, which limits its results to one effect level. Applied to eight lunch meals, the methodology and its calculations procedures are presented in detail. The results underline the general scientific view of food products; animal-protein based meals are more relevant considering their health and environmental effects. The concept seems useful for consumers to evaluate their own choices, and companies to expand their internal data, their benchmarking processes, or their external communication performance. Methodological shortcomings and the interpretation of results are discussed, and the conclusion shows the tools' potential for shaping transition processes, and for the reduction of natural resource use by supporting food suppliers' and consumers' decisions and choice. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free