Review: Consumption-stage food waste reduction interventions - What works and how to design better interventions

Food waste prevention has become an issue of international concern, with Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 aiming to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030. However there is no review that has considered the effectiveness of interventions aimed at preventing food waste in the consumption stages of the food system. This significant gap, if filled, could help support those working to reduce food waste in the developed world, providing knowledge of what interventions are specifically effective at preventing food waste. This paper fills this gap, identifying and summarizing food-waste prevention interventions at the consumption/consumer stage of the supply chain via a rapid review of global academic literature from 2006 to 2017. We identify 17 applied interventions that claim to have achieved food waste reductions. Of these, 13 quantified food waste reductions. Interventions that changed the size or type of plates were shown to be effective (up to 57% food waste reduction) in hospitality environments. Changing nutritional guidelines in schools were reported to reduce vegetable waste by up to 28%, indicating that healthy diets can be part of food waste reduction strategies. Information campaigns were also shown to be effective with up to 28% food waste reduction in a small sample size intervention. Cooking classes, fridge cameras, food sharing apps, advertising and information sharing were all reported as being effective but with little or no robust evidence provided. This is worrying as all these methods are now being proposed as approaches to reduce food waste and, except for a few studies, there is no reproducible quantified evidence to assure credibility or success. To strengthen current results, a greater number of longitudinal and larger sample size intervention studies are required. To inform future intervention studies, this paper proposes a standardised guideline, which consists of: (1) intervention design; (2) monitoring and measurement; (3) moderation and mediation; (4) reporting; (5) systemic effects. Given the importance of food-waste reduction, the findings of this review highlight a significant evidence gap, meaning that it is difficult to make evidence-based decisions to prevent or reduce consumption-stage food waste in a cost-effective manner

Att inreda hållbart : En kartläggning av vad hållbar heminredning kan innebära

Denna rapport har tagits fram inom forskningsprogrammet Mistra Sustainable Consumption – från nisch till mainstream som engagerar forskare från olika vetenskapliga discipliner och samhällspartners från offentlig sektor, näringsliv och civilsamhälle. Syftet med programmet är att stimulera en övergång till mer hållbar konsumtion. Forskningen är finansierad av Mistra, Stiftelsen för miljöstrategisk forskning, samt med medfinansiering från samtliga deltagande universitet och samhällspartners.De som skrivit texter till rapporten är Matthias Lehner, Heather Schoonover, Oksana Mont, Karin Bradley, Anneli Kamb och Åsa Svenfelt. Karin Bradley och Anneli Kamb har också varit redaktörer för rapporten. Miriam Börjesson Rivera, Annika Carlsson-Kanyama, Mikael Klintman, Vishal Parekh, Ola Persson, Eleni Stamatopoulou, Maria Thorson och Hanna Zetterberg har bidragit med underlags-material. Alla partners, listade nedan, har bidragit med inspel till kartläggningen av hållbarakonsumtionspraktiker. Emma Gerdin har arbetat med layout och bildsättning. Johan Jarelin påKonsumentverket, Ulrika Celin Wedin på Lunds kommun och Nina Wolf på Göteborgs stad har läst och bidragit med värdefulla kommentarer.Denna rapport har två syskonrapporter som är upplagda på liknande sätt och som har gemensamma inlednings- och avslutningstexter. De tre rapporterna Att äta hållbart?, Att semestra hållbart? ochAtt inreda hållbart? finns tillgängliga i digital form via programmets hemsida:www.sustainableconsumption.se.Stockholm och Lund den 4 februari 201

Computational analysis of the influence of PCMs on building performance in summer

The insulation of buildings in summer requires to exploit the heat capacity of materials in order to delay the heat transfer through the building structure. Phase change materials (PCM) installed in buildings can reduce the indoor temperature; however, given their high cost, their use must be evaluated carefully. This paper investigates the structures that can be coupled with PCM efficaciously, and it highlights some problems that could be caused by PCMs. The investigation has been performed numerically by means of the Energy-Plus software