Managing a Circular Food System in Sustainable Urban Farming. Experimental Research at the Turku University Campus (Finland)

Abstract

People around the world pay increasingly more attention to health, social, environmental, and ethical issues. As a consequence, they seek value in food that is fresh, less processed, and sustainably sourced. The article presents an experimental project supporting the implementation of a circular food system in the city of Turku, Finland. The outcome of the project is a globally replicable concept of managing a local circular food system in sustainable urban farming. The project had two objectives: (1) to reduce food waste in restaurants in the Turku University Campus; (2) to support local recycling of nutrients by composting food waste generated in the pilot restaurant and reuse the nutrients in the process of urban farming. The presented concept is based on the results of two experimental studies. It ties in with UN and EU sustainable development strategies and policies, e.g., Sustainable Development Goals (2, 11, and 12), the European Green Deal, the Farm to Fork Strategy, and the concepts of Circular Economy and Sustainable Cities.

Circular economy and sustainable strategies in the hospitality industry: Current trends and empirical implications

“…the role of menu design in shaping more responsible consumers’ choice under environmental perspective). As far as concern farm to fork strategies, some authors have explored the role of local foods consumption and the enhancement of short food supply chains towards sustainability (Scozzafava et al, 2017; Paciarotti and Torregiani, 2018), whereas in terms of circular economy strategies, several authors have proposed nutrients recycling and food composting (Erälinna and Szymoniuk, 2021), biodiesel production (Carmona-Cabello et al, 2018, 2019) and energy recovery (Velazquez Abad et al, 2015). Under the operational perspective, Orynycz et al (2020) discussed the improvement in lean management to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions in fast-food restaurants, whereas in the field of technical solutions several authors have proposed the introduction of carbon and water footprints (Pulkkinen et al, 2016; González-García et al, 2020), as well as best labeling rules (Christiansen et al, 2018), to increase consumers’ awareness.…”

“…Overall, waste management represents a common thread to quite all articles, being heterogeneously analyzed along the entire timeline, from 2013 (del Mar Alonso-Almeida, 2013) to 2021 (Gruia et al, 2021). As far as concerns research items, it is possible to underline at least three macro-categories, as follows: (a) food waste management, from measurement (Tatàno et al, 2017) to valorization (Carmona-Cadello et al, 2018, 2019; Erälinna and Szymoniuk, 2021) and energy recovery (Velazquez Abad et al, 2015); (b) choice architecture, intending the development of strategies towards sustainable consumption (Filimonau et al, 2017; Filimonau and Krivcova, 2017), dietary habits (González-García et al, 2020) and healthy options (Bacon and Krpan, 2018), as well as awareness campaigns through monitoring (Pulkkinen et al, 2016); and (c) local food strategies, enhancing the role of short food supply chains (Scozzafava et al, 2017; Paciarotti and Torregiani, 2018).…”

Towards symbiotic approaches between universities, sustainable development, and cities

“…Additionally, the approach of establishing a governance committee with members from HEIs, industry, and the community in the context of university towns 25 could also be useful in broader contexts, as a strategy to foster symbiotic collaborations between universities and cities to promote sustainable development. This strategy could be valuable to overcome the most common challenges of lack of time and interest in these relations, as responsibilities and resources could be shared, assuring that managing sustainable development solutions to be implemented in practice, besides being both pro-environmental and pro-social, are profitable for involved stakeholders 33 .…”

Sustainable food, consensus, and debates: a study on university campuses in Mexico City

“…These studies focused on the environmental dimensions of sustainability, addressing issues such as planting and managing collective vegetable gardens on campus considered to be critical educational projects (Duram and Klein, 2015; De Young, 2016), as well as opportunities for liaising with local communities (Aftandilian and Dart, 2013) or strategies for increasing food production (Bhatt et al , 2009). Other studies also analyze waste management concerning food preparation and consumption (Erälinna and Szymoniuk, 2021), food wastage (Abdelaal et al , 2019), the environmental footprint of food consumption (Nilsson et al , 1998), reduction in meat consumption to cope with climate change (Figueiredo et al , 2021) and the water–energy–food security nexus (Gu et al , 2018).…”