Modelling, assessing, and ranking public procurement options for a climate-friendly catering service

Abstract

Purpose Several scientific papers and technical reports have discussed the role of green public procurement in the food sector. Different strategies for the restoration sector have been identified. However, there is not yet a common understanding of which policies could be the most efficient in reducing the global warming potential of the public restoration service. This paper assesses a set of procurement policies, ranking them according to their potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of public catering. Methods Eleven relevant green public procurement policies were identified from the literature. These are discussed in the context of a case study of the school catering service in the city of Turin (Italy). Initially, a life cycle approach is applied to a baseline scenario of the collective restoration system of the city, to quantify the quantity of greenhouse gases produced by the entire catering service (including all stages from the production of food to the management of waste from kitchens and canteens). Afterwards, the 11 policies were applied to the baseline scenario so that the potential improvement achieved by each policy could be quantified. Results and discussion The baseline scenario resulted in 1.67 kgCO 2 eq per average meal. The production of food dominates the global warming potential of the full service, being responsible for about 78% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Among the selected policies, a change in diet was the most effective (leading to a 32% reduction of the CO 2 eq emissions), followed by the adoption of improved food production practices (11% reduction) and the purchasing of certified green electricity (6% reduction). Conclusions The proposed method allows the assessment of procurement policies in the catering service by applying a simplified life cycle approach that considers all the stages of the process. Public authorities and other stakeholders could benefit from basing their decisions upon scientific evidence and avoiding the prioritisation of policies based on personal opinions or weak evidence. Uncertainties and areas for improvement in the method have been also identified for future investigation.

EATS: a life cycle-based decision support tool for local authorities and school caterers

“…The case study presented shows how the composition of a meal significantly influences its environmental impact (both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and of water use), and therefore highlights the potential savings achievable by applying changes to the menus. This is in line with previous research that identified menu changes as the most effective measure to improve the environmental performance of the catering sector (Cerutti et al 2018;Jungbluth et al 2016). However, the cultural acceptability of applying changes to school menus needs to be further investigated.…”

“…A recent paper by Cerutti et al (2018) focused on the analysis of several policy options adopted by the catering sector to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the service provided. These included applying changes to the menus, improving food storage and cooking practices and introducing programs for the recycling and composting of waste.…”

Environmental impact of meal service catering for dependent senior citizens in Danish municipalities

“…Food wasted at the homes of the senior citizens is typically compensated by additional intake of snack meals to satisfy their energy needs. Similar to Cerutti et al (2018), we found the impact of packaging to be negligible.…”

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production – Potential Benefits and Impacts on Forests and Livelihoods

“…In recent academic discourses, SPP has been discussed in the framework of green public procurement (Lundberg and Marklund 2018). The need for scientific evidence on effects of SPP to support decision-making on SPP schemes in relation to forest sectors has been emphasised (Cerutti et al 2018). One of the major challenges is to link global forest certification systems such as the PEFC and FSC with SPP initiatives.…”