To reach the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement and the climate change objectives for 2030, habits, production systems, metrics and governance will have to change drastically.

Alongside the private foodservice market, public sector institutions - hospitals, care homes, schools, universities and canteens in government buildings – represent a significant part of the procurement of any national food economy. Green public procurement of food provides the opportunity to drive local and regional food economies towards more sustainable paths.

The conversion to organic production has been relatively easy in terms of measurement and baselining but measuring CO2 and other emissions is complicated in terms of data availability. We need methodological consensus in order to educate procurement officers, kitchens and consumers to make informed choices necessary to transform the food system at the scale that is needed – and we need LCAs on more product groups encompassing sustainable production methods.

Despite general support for green procurement strategies at a governance level, measuring the climate impact of multiple raw materials for a meal is not a straightforward thing to do. Several factors must be considered simultaneously - how can we enable sustainable menu planning where kitchen staff in a kindergarten for example can budget their CO2 impact- and start rationing the most emission heavy products?

Not having good indicators and solid data per ingredient is a big challenge and solving this will be key to certified green procurement in public kitchens.

About the event

The event Systemic change in our food system is hosted by EIT Climate-KIC and Copenhagen House of Food with the aim to gather stakeholders involved in the food value chain around public meals. We want to facilitate the development and shift towards sustainable food systems with public procurement in the forefront, and we believe that the C40 World Mayors Summit will convene the right people to map out the way to lift this agenda.

The event is designed to help us answer the burning questions around reliable validation and verification of the actual sustainability of our food choices.

The workshop approach

With inspiration from research experts and industry leaders, we will jointly explore and understand the barriers and challenges in data collection, distribution and usage.

By convening various stakeholders for a workshop, we will explore the knowledge landscape in this area and kickstart the process of getting aligned. In the workshop, we will explore answers to the following questions:

What is the optimal data and method?
How do we design the end user tools and secure validation?
How do we gather data?
What examples and methods already exist?

The Workshop Agenda

13.00 Introduction by EIT Climate-KIC and Copenhagen House of Food

13.20 Three inspirational talks on data, validation and verification (8-10 minutes each including Q&A)

14.00 Facilitated workshop with the aim to provide insights to the above challenges

16.00 Harvesting knowledge with feedback from workshop participants

16.30 Collecting viewpoints and pointing out next steps

17.00 Refreshments and snacks