A new food footprint calculator has been developed to allow consumers to measure the environmental impact of their shopping.
Experts from the University of Nottingham's School of Psychology and Business School have developed a web portal where people can upload their Tesco Clubcard data and get a calculation of the environmental of the products they are buying.
The calculator launched today on World Environment Day 5 June and is part of the Data Donation for Climate Change project which aims to support changing people's behaviour towards making more sustainable choices.
Professor Alexa Spence from the School of Psychology is leading the project - supported by Professor James Goulding, chair of data science.
While some broad patterns of understanding do exist for food categories generally, the scale of impacts appear hard to comprehend. Beef, for instance, is widely recognised as environmentally intensive. However, consumers tend not to differentiate sufficiently between beef and other meats. In reality, the disparity is considerable: producing beef mince can generate approximately ten times the greenhouse gas emissions associated with chicken. Such gaps in understanding suggest that even when consumers are directionally correct, they may underestimate the magnitude of differences between options.
To help consumers understand the team have gathered the environmental data from tens of thousands of products sold by Tesco which allows the calculator to provide a visualisation of the environmental impact of a person's shopping.
When the clubcard data is added the calculator generates a visualisation of the environmental impact of the products, which people can compare to the average basket amounts shown, these are:
- Greenhouse gases in equivalent to number of kettles boiled, with the average basket containing 660.
- Water stress which is provided as number of baths filled, average is 1,081
- Land use which is presented as number of trees worth of space, average is 9 trees worth
- Chemical run off which is given as the equivalent to kg of synthetic fertiliser, average 22kg
Using this calculator people can build a picture over time and see which products have the most environmental impact. They can also create a "summary card" that can be shared with friends and family.
Professor Spence adds: "Changing consumer behaviour is really challenging, especially now when price is the driving factor in shopping decisions. To meet climate targets, we need to make significant changes to the way that we live and harness the drive to be more sustainable.
"However, people need to be supported in making behaviour changes and having personalised information based on their shopping habits is a powerful tool for understanding environmental impact, and we hope with that understanding people can consider more sustainable options."
People using the food footprint calculator will also have the opportunity to opt in to donate their data for further environmental research being undertaken by the team.
This project is part of the Smart Accelerator Scheme and will help contribute to the broader long-term transformation of research using smart data being championed by Smart Data Research UK.
