Universitat Jaume I (UJI) is coordinating this European project with the collaboration of 21 institutions from 7 countries in Europe.
ToNoWaste (Towards a New Zero Food Waste Mindset Based on Holistic Assessment) is a project funded by the Horizon Europe Programme whose objective is to overcome food waste with a multi-stakeholder and interdisciplinary approach that considers not only agronomic, economic, environmental, and business model challenges, but also other cross-cutting aspects such as psychology, law, and social innovation to fight also against gender and social inequalities. The project launched in Castelló de la Plana this last 5th and 6th of October 2022, with the attendance of all consortium members, the project has a grant of 5,971,410 euros and will be developed for the next four years.
Food waste is a major problem around 88 million tonnes of food is wasted annually along the EU supply chain, from primary production to consumption, with associated costs of €143 billion. The associated environmental impact is also huge: global food loss and waste is equivalent to 8-10% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions and costs around $1 trillion per year, and 30% of agricultural land is wasted. The assessment of this problem remains unresolved, not only because it is extremely complex due to the lack of open access data and the absence of a standard methodology for comprehensive assessment in real food systems, but also because it affects the commitment of private entities that need to assess the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of food waste prevention and reduction (FWPR) solutions to act. Universitat Jaume I (UJI) is coordinating this European project with the collaboration of 21 institutions from 7 countries in Europe.
ABOUT TONOWASTE
ToNoWaste mission is to encourage actors in European food systems using science and evidence-based tools and lessons learned to make better decisions towards a more sustainable food production and consumption patterns. Its main objective is to provide farmers, supply chain companies as well as consumers and policymakers with more objective, integrated, and standardized information about the impacts and global co-benefits of their daily actions. ToNoWaste will inspire them to co-create a portfolio of positively assessed pathways to shift Europe towards a healthier, more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable food production and consumption.
This project arose during the year 2021, trying to combine the research previously carried out by the different scientific institutions collaborating in the project with the need to respond to this crucial problem, not only to contribute to social development by reducing food poverty or improving the nutrition of our citizens, but also to reduce the environmental impact of wasted food, for example in terms of climate change, water use or waste generation.
To this end, scientific results will be transferred to reality, through how-to-create and test processes in the pilots developed in the cities of Valencia, Vienna, and Graz or in the follower regions and cities in Greece and Sweden.
The coordinator of the project, María Jesús Muñoz – Torres from UJI, emphasized that the project is “faced with the challenges of the SDGs on reducing the environmental and social impacts of our production and consumption models. The ToNoWaste project proposes solutions based on science, that allow us to ensure the sustainability of our actions to reduce waste throughout the agri-food chain, from production to the consumer. Pilots have been set up in cities such as Valencia, Vienna, and Graz, which have demonstrated their commitment to sustainability”.
CONSORTIUM
ToNoWaste is formed by a multidisciplinary consortium led by Universitat Jaume I – UJI (Spain), and composed by Oesterreichische Akademie Der Wissenschaften – OEAW (Austria), Universidad de la Iglesia de Deusto – UD (Spain), Universitetet I Oslo – UiO (Norway), Wageningen University – WU (Netherlands), Hogskolan I Gavle – HiG (Sweden), Zenithwings – ZEN (Portugal), Eroski Scoop – EROS (Spain), Zabala Innovation – ZAB (Spain), Akaryon – AKAR (Austria), Fundacion De La Comunitat Valenciana para la Promocion Estrategica el Desarrollo y La Innovacion Urbana – LNV (Spain), Mercados Centrales de Abastecimiento de Valencia – MERC (Spain), Cuinatur – CUIN (Spain), Federacion de Cooperativas Agroalimentares de la Comunidad Valenciana – CACV (Spain), Strateco – STR (Austria), Caritas Der Erzdiozese Wien – CARI (Austria), Bio Ernte Steiermark – BIO (Austria), Zero Waste Austria – ZWA (Austria), Perspektive Handel Cartitas – PERS (Austria), Hälsinglands Utbildningsförbund – HEA (Sweden), Dimos Chalandriou – HAL (Greece)