Connecting producers and consumers to enable more sustainable consumption: communicating the environmental impact of food through packaging

Environmental sustainability is an increasingly important factor for both producers and consumers within food systems; this is evidenced within changes to manufacturing processes, marketing campaigns, legislation and consumer buying trends, as well as being voiced by both industry and consumers within research, conferences and government policy such as the National Food Strategy for England. It is however, a term that due to increased use, arguably causing it to become a buzzword that contributes to greenwashing, has become both unclear and disputed in its definition within different contexts.

Within food systems, it is often difficult to decipher how sustainable a product is due to lacking, inconsistent or conflicting information. It is therefore challenging to understand what constitutes sustainable consumption. One way of communicating information surrounding the environmental impact of food products is via packaging, which already offers a considerable amount of nutritional, allergic and contact information in the UK. Whilst an array of so called 'eco labels' exist, highlighting specific environmental factors such as those relating to recycling, Fairtrade and organic products, the origin of produce and the standards by which a company has abided when capturing or harvesting it, the diversity of these labels makes it difficult to reach a conclusion as to the overall environmental impact of one product compared to another. Research is currently being undertaken to create a single 'score' that encompasses an array of different environmental factors that reduces this challenge, e.g., using life cycle assessment and the European Commission's Environmental Footprint calculation model, however the extent to which consumer perceptions has been considered within the creation of these scores is not currently clear. Given that the role of this information is to inform the consumer, it can be argued that such perceptions (e.g., which environmental factors consumers feel influence their buying decisions) are vitally important to include in the creation of environmental impact information on packaging. This consumer-specific input would help create an informed, targeted, comprehensible and accessible way of communicating through packaging, which would benefit consumers but also producers by gaining a clear understanding of where best to focus their attention regarding the sustainability of their products.

Furthermore, this research aims to understand how packaging can be best used as a communication tool for the environmental impact of food products within the UK. By consulting consumers and understanding which factors to prioritise in packaging information, it aims to connect producers and consumers through information sharing that leads to increased trust between both parties, more accessible environmental information and therefore increased awareness surrounding the sustainability of different food products. This will provide both producers and consumers with the necessary information to work towards more sustainable consumption within their own context (where possible, considering external limitations and barriers) due to clear, transparent and consistent access to sustainability measures of food products.

We will collaborate with over 40 partners drawn from across FMCG and Food; Creative Industries; Health and Wellbeing; Smart Mobility; Finance; Enabling technologies; and Policy, Law and Society. These will benefit from engagement with our CDT through the following established mechanisms:

- Training multi-disciplinary leaders. Our partners will benefit from being able to recruit highly skilled individuals who are able to work across technologies, methods and sectors and in multi-disciplinary teams. We will deliver at least 65 skilled PhD graduates into the Digital Economy.

- Internships. Each Horizon student undertakes at least one industry internship or exchange at an external partner. These internships have a benefit to the student in developing their appreciation of the relevance of their PhD to the external societal and industrial context, and have a benefit to the external partner through engagement with our students and their multidisciplinary skill sets combined with an ability to help innovate new ideas and approaches with minimal long-term risk. Internships are a compulsory part of our programme, taking place in the summer of the first year. We will deliver at least 65 internships with partners.

- Industry-led challenge projects. Each student participates in an industry-led group project in their second year. Our partners benefit from being able to commission focused research projects to help them answer a challenge that they could not normally fund from their core resources. We will deliver at least 15 such projects (3 a year) throughout the lifetime of the CDT.

- Industry-relevant PhD projects. Each student delivers a PhD thesis project in collaboration with at least one external partner who benefits from being able to engage in longer-term and deeper research that they would not normally be able to undertake, especially for those who do not have their own dedicated R&D labs. We will deliver at least 65 such PhDs over the lifetime of this CDT renewal.

- Public engagement. All students receive training in public engagement and learn to communicate their findings through press releases, media coverage.

This proposal introduces two new impact channels in order to further the impact of our students' work and help widen our network of partners.

- The Horizon Impact Fund. Final year students can apply for support to undertake short impact projects. This benefits industry partners, public and third sector partners, academic partners and the wider public benefit from targeted activities that deepen the impact of individual students' PhD work. This will support activities such as developing plans for spin-outs and commercialization; establishing an IP position; preparing and documenting open-source software or datasets; and developing tourable public experiences.

- ORBIT as an impact partner for RRI. Students will embed findings and methods for Responsible Research Innovation into the national training programme that is delivered by ORBIT, the Observatory for Responsible Research and Innovation in ICT (www.orbit-rri.org). Through our direct partnership with ORBIT all Horizon CDT students will be encouraged to write up their experience of RRI as contributions to ORBIT so as to ensure that their PhD research will not only gain visibility but also inform future RRI training and education. PhD projects that are predominantly in the area of RRI are expected to contribute to new training modules, online tools or other ORBIT services.