TRiFOCAL, the project encouraging sustainable food behaviours in London, has announced its results as the three-year initiative comes to an end. The project helped citizens in six London boroughs reduce the amount of good food thrown away by 9% between spring 2017 and spring 2019
Delivered by WRAP, the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB), and Groundwork London, TRiFOCAL addressed three message areas relating to food: healthy and sustainable eating, food waste recycling, and food waste prevention.
The project has succeeded in its main objective to encourage sustainable food systems in cities by piloting a communications campaign integrating three food behaviours:
- The prevention of food waste by changing planning, shopping, storage and meal preparation
- The promotion of healthy and sustainable eating
- The recycling of unavoidable food waste
These are underpinned by a number of specific targets, which have been reported in a summary report about the project: http://trifocal.eu.com/project-resources/reports/summary-report/
While some of the targets have been challenging to achieve, a citizen facing campaign - Small Change, Big Difference - has succeeded in getting TRiFOCAL’s messages out to a large number of Londoners, primarily 18 to 34 year olds, helping them to change the way they buy, eat and dispose of their food. The campaign was supported by a range of stakeholders including local authorities, restaurants, large employers and community groups. TRiFOCAL engaged with all 33 London boroughs, with focused activity in 15 boroughs and in-depth evaluation conducted in six boroughs.
Peter Maddox, Director at WRAP, said: “TRiFOCAL is the first project of its kind. It has proved that combining messaging around healthy and sustainable eating with food waste prevention and recycling can deliver real impact. TRiFOCAL’s unique model has attracted attention across Europe, and we’re setting the standard in how we might tackle citizen behaviour change around sustainable food behaviours in the future.”
LWARB’s Chair – and Champion of the UN Sustainable Development Goal on food waste – Dr Liz Goodwin OBE, said: “This has been a challenging but inspiring project, creating engaging campaign content which has reached Londoners right across the capital. Working closely with 15 of London’s boroughs has also helped motivate citizens at a local level and provide them with achievable ideas on how to tackle food waste and eat more sustainably. The results are gratifying: reducing avoidable food waste by an average of 9% is a meaningful contribution towards tackling the climate change impacts of food waste and helping Londoners save money in the process.”
Lindy Kelly, Executive Director at Groundwork London, said: “It’s been inspiring to have seen so many communities across London actively play a role in TRiFOCAL’s success. We are proud to be sharing the learning, impact and resources from schools to community groups, and look forward to seeing the award-winning project replicated in more cities across the UK and Europe.” To preserve TRiFOCAL’s legacy and continue promoting the project’s aims, a resource bank has been developed to share the materials and outputs developed over the course of the project. This will also ensure that people across Europe can keep using them to achieve city-level impact. The resource bank includes an education pack for schools and teachers, the community leaders’ toolkit and a wide range of case studies on the project’s evaluation and delivery activities in London and the EU replication cities. http://resources.trifocal.eu.com/
Notes to Editor
TRiFOCAL: TRiFOCAL London – Transforming City FOod hAbits for Life, is an initiative led by WRAP together with LWARB and Groundwork London. The organisations won a bid with the LIFE programme of the European Commission to deliver the initiative in London, which was a test bed for other European cities. The project ran from September 2016 to January 2020 and it received €3.2m funding from the European Union’s LIFE programme. You can find more information at trifocal.eu.com.
Small Change, Big Difference is the communications campaign of TRiFOCAL London, an EU LIFE funded programme that aimed to address three key areas: healthy sustainable eating, preventing household food waste and recycling inedible food waste. The initiative was led by WRAP together with LWARB and Groundwork London. The campaign aimed to help everyone in London make small food changes to lead better, healthier, more sustainable lives. Small Change, Big Difference also shared learnings with other UK and EU cities, and beyond.
About WRAP: WRAP is not for profit, working with governments, businesses and citizens to create a world in which we source and use resources sustainably. Our experts generate the evidence-based solutions we need to protect the environment, build stronger economies and support more sustainable societies. Our impact spans the entire lifecycle of the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the products we buy, from production to consumption and beyond. www.wrap.org.uk @WRAP_UK
About LWARB: The London Waste and Recycling Board is a partnership of the Mayor of London and the London boroughs to improve waste and resource management. The city’s economic and environmental future depends on a transition to a low-carbon circular economy, and LWARB works to ensure that London’s businesses, local government and communities thrive by helping them make the very best use of resources and materials.
About Groundwork London: Groundwork London transforms lives in the capital’s most disadvantaged communities by helping them become stronger, healthier and greener.
We work across a range of environmental and social programmes that help people gain confidence and skills, get into training and work, protect and improve the environment, lead more active lives and overcome significant challenges such as poverty, isolation, low skills and poor health. We’re passionate about creating a future where every neighbourhood is vibrant and green, every community is strong and able to shape its own destiny and no one is held back by their background or circumstances. Groundwork London is a registered charity - No. 1121105. http://groundworklondon.org.uk