London is one of the world’s food capitals. Feeding a city of nine million people is no mean feat, and it puts an enormous burden on the environment – particularly when almost all this food and drink must be brought in from outside the capital. The flows of food and waste travelling through our food system are a serious challenge to London’s ambition to be a low-carbon and circular city.
ReLondon’s recent report, London’s Food Footprint, mapped for the first time the environmental impact of material flows and consumption-based emissions (greenhouse gas emissions assigned to consumers, rather than the producers) of London’s food system, as well as identifying levers for climate action. The scale of the challenge is huge, but our research also highlights how a few bold and strategic steps to transition towards a more circular economy can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The report highlights some stark findings:
- Approximately 6,347,000 tonnes of food are produced to supply London’s food system each year; 99% of London’s food and beverage is imported from outside the city, and local production and farming accounting for less than 1% of the capital’s food supply
- Before it even reaches London, 836,000 tonnes of imported food are lost from the supply chain. This represents the second largest volume of food that is either lost or wasted across the food system, after household waste (931,000 tonnes); 67% of ‘food waste’ in London is edible but just 0.5% is redistributed
- Meat is particularly carbon-intensive – it makes up approximately 5% of the food consumed by London households by mass, yet it is responsible for 27% of London households’ consumption-based emissions.
Food waste created by Londoners also contributes to an increase in the consumption-based emissions associated with producing this food. From the food loss and waste that is generated within the city, 8% still ends up in landfill, which itself generates 256kt CO2eq each year.
London’s food system also has a significant impact outside the city itself, influencing the food that is produced, the food loss and waste that is generated and the greenhouse gases that are emitted: a huge 78% of the consumption-based emissions associated with the capital’s food system occur outside city boundaries.
ReLondon’s research aims to help achieve the city’s zero-waste and zero-carbon ambitions, by identifying leverage points in London’s food system that can bring about significant reductions in emissions.
Key points include a shift towards more healthy and sustainable diets, reducing food loss and waste (all along the supply chain), and making better use of the food waste we produce.
We modelled two scenarios against each of these points: moderate and ambitious. In the more ambitious scenarios, the interventions identified have the potential to reduce the consumption-based emissions of London’s food system by an estimated 31%. Our modelling also demonstrated the importance of an integrated approach, and the higher potential impact we could achieve by combining interventions around the types of food we eat (healthy and sustainable diets) and the broader issue of food loss and waste.
The Mayor of London and the London boroughs, supported by ReLondon, are already taking action. This includes the Food Flagship Initiative, a three-year partnership between the Mayor of London, ReLondon and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, to accelerate London’s transition to a low-carbon circular economy for food. We’re developing an ambitious action plan which will help focus efforts on interventions with the most impact.
Conscious that this issue cannot be solved with a siloed approach, we will also be convening a food supply chain roundtable in 2022, gathering senior executives from businesses with the largest footprint to discuss how they intend to reduce emissions and food loss and waste.
The Food Flagship Initiative is also recognising and showcasing bold and ambitious projects that pioneer circular food system solutions. London’s first three Circular Food Pioneer Projects have recently been unveiled, hoping to inspire new solutions. The Felix Project in London has been spotlighted for its work rescuing surplus food and redistributing it to those in need, and in their new Felix’s Kitchen, they’re using surplus food to provide ready-cooked meals. Toast Ale is scaling the use of surplus bread to help more breweries transition to a circular brewing model, and a new ReLondon-funded project, in partnership with the London Borough of Bexley, will measure the impact of targeted local promotion of food waste apps like Olio and Kitche.
Transitioning to a circular economy for food in London will not only help to tackle the climate crisis, it will also create opportunities to restore biodiversity, regenerate soil, reduce water use and pollution and improve our health. It could also bring many other economic and social benefits, including community wellbeing, social cohesion, supply chain resilience, skills development and new jobs.
This research is a major milestone in understanding how to achieve zero-carbon ambitions – not just in London but across other sectors and cities globally. Working together, we must seize the opportunity for London to be a leader in reducing the generation of damaging emissions from our food system.
We’re on the lookout for other transformative projects, so if you have an idea or an existing concept, apply today to be recognised as one of London’s circular food pioneers.
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