Christoffersen, Sofie

Lindqvist, Sarah Elisabeth Kall

Luther, Anne-Sofie Sørensen

Madsen, Lasse Nicolas

Safft, Amalie Victoria

The purpose of this report is to examine how to decrease food waste in single - and family households by using an app as a tool to change their behaviour.During the last few years, climate change has been more and more apparent in the everyday life of consumers. Food waste alone emits 0.5-tonnes of CO2 per capita per year. 95% of Danish people are interested in changing their behaviour and reducing their CO2 emissions if it would have a positive effect on the climate. By using B.J. Fogg’s theory on “Persuasive Technology” (2003) and the basics of behavioural science, we believe designing an app on those grounds can help the Danish people change their food waste habits and reduce their waste, consequently reducing their CO2 emissions.By using Hevner’s cycle (Hevner, March, Park, Ram, 2004) we have developed an app design by using our knowledge base in combination with our perceived environment. Our prototype was constructed as a story board in Photoshop. The initial design was brought to the interviews to get feedback for further development. Through the method of quantitative interview practises we trialled our app design, discussed food practices, and general food structure within our target groups’ houses. The feedback we got through the interviews were divided into themes and then later analysed. To have the best foundation to further develop the app, we looked at previous research papers that focus on this specific subject. We used the findings of those papers to establish what had previously worked and failed.By using our findings from our interviews and our research we discussed how we could best further develop the app to fit the purpose of reducing food waste through behaviour change.We found that the target group over all liked the concept of the app and were excited to have a tool to help them reduce their food waste. However, some of the feedback we received was that the app was also too time consuming. We also discovered that many of the functions that were asked for would be impractical to include in the app because of current technological limitations. The development of such functions would also come with a high financial cost that would discourage the use of the app. In conclusion, the idea of the application as a tool is great, but until technology catches up and can make the behaviour change easier, it is hard to use all aspects of the app proposed. However, certain functions such as “Resteretter” and “Holdbarhedstræet” would be useable almost immediately. The purpose of this report is to examine how to decrease food waste in single - and family households by using an app as a tool to change their behaviour.During the last few years, climate change has been more and more apparent in the everyday life of consumers. Food waste alone emits 0.5-tonnes of CO2 per capita per year. 95% of Danish people are interested in changing their behaviour and reducing their CO2 emissions if it would have a positive effect on the climate. By using B.J. Fogg’s theory on “Persuasive Technology” (2003) and the basics of behavioural science, we believe designing an app on those grounds can help the Danish people change their food waste habits and reduce their waste, consequently reducing their CO2 emissions.By using Hevner’s cycle (Hevner, March, Park, Ram, 2004) we have developed an app design by using our knowledge base in combination with our perceived environment. Our prototype was constructed as a story board in Photoshop. The initial design was brought to the interviews to get feedback for further development. Through the method of quantitative interview practises we trialled our app design, discussed food practices, and general food structure within our target groups’ houses. The feedback we got through the interviews were divided into themes and then later analysed. To have the best foundation to further develop the app, we looked at previous research papers that focus on this specific subject. We used the findings of those papers to establish what had previously worked and failed.By using our findings from our interviews and our research we discussed how we could best further develop the app to fit the purpose of reducing food waste through behaviour change.We found that the target group over all liked the concept of the app and were excited to have a tool to help them reduce their food waste. However, some of the feedback we received was that the app was also too time consuming. We also discovered that many of the functions that were asked for would be impractical to include in the app because of current technological limitations. The development of such functions would also come with a high financial cost that would discourage the use of the app. In conclusion, the idea of the application as a tool is great, but until technology catches up and can make the behaviour change easier, it is hard to use all aspects of the app proposed. However, certain functions such as “Resteretter” and “Holdbarhedstræet” would be useable almost immediately. <br/

Save the plate: How you can use an app as a tool to decrease food waste

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Roskilde Universitet