CIRC-FOOD

Food waste represents one of the main environmental, social and economic challenges facing European cities. Around 58 million tonnes of food waste are generated in the European Union every year, which has a significant impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, unnecessary use of resources and economic losses.

Cities play a key role in reducing food waste, as a significant proportion of this waste occurs in urban settings and across various stages of the food chain. Furthermore, cities provide the ideal environment for fostering local collaborative ecosystems that enable food waste to be tackled from a systemic, multi-stakeholder perspective.

Although many cities have launched initiatives to reduce food waste, these actions are often carried out in a fragmented manner across different stakeholders and sectors. Improving coordination between them is key to moving towards more efficient, circular and inclusive urban food systems.

The city of València has demonstrated its commitment to preventing and reducing food loss and waste by promoting various projects and initiatives across the city. However, making progress in reducing food waste requires strengthening coordination mechanisms between the various actors in the urban food system.

The project aims to support participating cities in developing Integrated Action Plans (Zero Food Waste Roadmaps) designed to improve coordination and cooperation among the various stakeholders in the urban agri-food chain in order to reduce food waste. These plans will enable cities to define a shared vision, collaboration mechanisms, measurement tools and pilot actions, involving the different sectors of the urban food system.

The network’s learning process will be structured around five pillars, each focusing on a key link in the food chain and on strengthening governance and systemic coordination.

Learning Pillar 1: Primary production

Learning Pillar 2: Food distribution: Markets, trade, logistics

Learning Pillar 3: Catering and food service 

Learning Pillar 4: Household consumption and participation

Learning Pillar 5: Coordination and governance

We are looking for cities that might be interested in the topic, with especial interest to cities that might want to lead the consortium.