Low-impact eating: designing for emerging needs and ethical food consumption
From a recent project at Designit’s studio in Stockholm, we learned how designers can create conditions that encourage more sustainable eating habits at work, and how we can all embrace a culture of care and responsibility. It’s not only in the food we eat, but in how we live our lives. This work is part of our Futures theme, Playful unlearning, where we use play to prepare for a future that requires us to think and problem-solve in new ways.
We’ve investigated our work environment and foresee shifts towards ethical food habits and consumption. When seeing the reality of our situation from a planetary perspective, we must recognize our interdependence with life on Earth as part of one complex, living system. In this article, we’ll consider the habits and behaviors we need to unlearn for ethical food consumption, so both us and the planet can thrive.
Research has demonstrated that the striking acceleration of carbon dioxide emissions, sea-level rise, the global mass extinction of species, and the transformation of land by deforestation has led us to an era where the planet is profoundly changed by human civilization (the Anthropocene). In The New Wild, George Monbiot refers to “novel ecosystems” as the reorganization of plants and animals, and how their adaptation is intrinsically linked with human activity in response to climatic and environmental change.
Nowadays, the pandemic lets us reflect even more on our consumer patterns and disconnection with nature. Food consumption is one of the areas we must address to prevent irreversible local and global consequences in the wildlife and environment.
Eating for a healthy planet
According to EAT Forum, food forms an inseparable link between human health and environmental sustainability. The global food system must operate within certain boundaries for human health and food production to ensure healthy diets for nearly 10 billion people by 2050. This transformation to a healthy diet for both people and the planet will require substantial dietary shifts. However, the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can guide us to make more ethical decisions in food consumption.
The choices we collectively make will affect our environment in the short- and long-term future. Together we must step up and embrace ethical food habits through systemic thinking. We can start by making the shift in our daily interactions with food by cooperating with consumers, organizations, and companies that have an active role in sustainability. From a broader perspective, we must challenge conventional markets to include this viewpoint in their cultural values.
Our work with the food industry has shown that people are starting to use their purchasing power towards the development of organic food production to shift towards a more vegetarian diet. Consumer behavior is part of a larger movement that is attempting to reduce the negative impact of the mainstream food and beverage markets.
It’s all about mindful consumption
According to the UN Environment Programme, about one-third of the food produced for human consumption each year is lost or wasted. Moreover, National Geographic states that nearly two-thirds of consumers agree that large changes are needed in the way food is produced and consumed to feed the global population, which will require 30% more food by 2050 if we continue in the same direction.
How do we inspire behavioral change and ethical food consumption in our lunch habits? In one-on-one chats, we discussed eating and cooking habits with our teammates to understand their unique perspectives and challenges. After all, identifying purchasing and eating patterns is key to understanding how we can unlearn these habits and encourage mindful consumption. Our observations at lunch showed that while we care about what we eat, we waste food that could be eaten later, donated, or even composted.
As part of our Futures initiative, we approached this subject through the lens of playful unlearning. How can we unlearn old habits to learn more sustainable behaviors? We began by conducting field research in local groceries stores and desk research at global level to learn about our current relationships with food, waste, and circular consumption. From our field research in western Stockholm, we noticed there are no packaging-free or sustainable packaging choices at the local shops. Consequently, we produce more waste that ends up in the trash.
We created an online research wall to visualize our findings and share the content with our community. For this experiment, we synthesized our data and clustered it according to categories. In this way, we’ve gathered insights that uncover implicit needs and core motivations around food, circular consumption, and sustainable living.
Interestingly, most of our flexitarians colleagues preferred more vegetarian lunches at work. Also, many people in our work environment follow a vegetarian diet, in addition to a few who follow a plant-based diet. These small, daily habits snowball into significant changes over a year, and findings have shown there is a motivational and personal satisfaction in shifting to more mindful consumption. The current system leads us to think the fight against waste starts even before we bring meals to work. Therefore, changing the everyday choices we all make around unsustainable eating habits is key to tackling food waste in our office.
Reducing food waste and minimizing package.
We immersed ourselves in the research and followed “How might we” statements to co-design ideas in our design team. Afterwards, we created a matrix, taking into account what changes are feasible in the short- and long-term. Small steps were identified to generate less waste in our Stockholm studio: adopting a more minimalist approach, buying small portions, planning meals, and aiming to empty the cabinets and fridge before buying new products.
Bringing your own container when buying takeout food is another way to reduce unnecessary packaging. Another idea was to have a “waste-free” activity at lunch, as we often end up throwing away fresh leftovers. There are also activities such as composting and growing your own garden. We thought cultivating a garden could be one of the areas to explore in the long term — growing herbs and small vegetables would minimize our outside food consumption. Also, some plants would produce flowers to attract pollinators, an added benefit for our buzzy friends. Composting and cooking smaller byproducts is potentially a long-term method as well, since it requires an investment in equipment, time to tackle the learning curve, and we must establish hygiene measures (considering our current pandemic).
Here are the ways we’re tackling our long-term sustainable eating goals:
Moving forward
During a chat with some digital designers in the studio, we hit upon the idea of creating a “Sustainable Lunch Habits” campaign. The campaign aims to increase visibility of ethical consumption habits through “life hacks” and playful reminders around relevant, high-visibility spots, like the kitchen entrance, fridge, and disposal area. This takes the form of posters and signs with four simple principles:
- Buy it with thought.
- Serve just enough.
- Eat what is left.
- Compost with care.
Download the full printable poster, signs, and icons here.
As a studio, we’ve already begun to be more conscious of our collective waste and the ethical ways to dispose of it. The current posters are paving the way for more information on separating compost and producing soil for composting in the future. Our studio culture has also been impacted — this campaign has engendered a sense of interdependence in our team, since it has nudged us to consider the effects of our actions, together, and think about our place within the natural world. By initiating conversations and actions around sustainable food, our ultimate goal was to bring everyone closer to nature and raise awareness of the well-being of our interdependent planetary system.
Cultivating an interdependent way of thinking helps us unlearn old routines and establish new, sustainable ways of living. It fosters a worldview of belonging and love for all life on Earth. It’s our small yet significant way of redirecting towards an ethical and sustainable future for all. Once everyone’s all back in the studio, we’ll have fresh ideas and initiatives to foster human and planetary health.
Are you interested in sustainability by design? You’re in the right place! Check out our articles on ethical design; using behavioral design for sustainability and well-being; and designing for people, profit, and planet.
