Peloton Club: Smart Food – Reducing the climate footprint of food consumption is easy and fun

In December a good crowd of people gathered to Peloton Club Night, held by Demos Helsinki, to talk about sustainable food, to eat excellent kale pizza and to have some beers.

Because the climate footprint of food consumption is about as big as the impact from traffic or housing it is vital that we start consuming food in more sustainable way. The good news is, as we heard from the great panelists in Peloton Club, that we already have many solutions.

One major issue is to reduce meat consumption. Especially beef has a huge climate footprint compared to for instance poultry or beans. Luckily we have easy solutions how to replace beef in our diets. Tarja Ollila from Verso Food told at Peloton Club how well their relatively new product Härkis, which is made of fava beans, has hit the market. Besides the good taste, the success is explained by how easy the product is to use.

Jussi Kallio told about an Agile pilot funded by Climate Street project where Sustainable Meal educated restaurant staff and helped them to develop sustainable meal options for their menus. It is essential to consider environmental impacts in the entire chain from raw materials to dining and final disposal.

Additionally to the climate footprint of our everyday food choices the question of waste food is significant. Food production consumes a lot of energy and the amount of edible food going to waste should be absolutely minimal. But do not despair. A lot has been done on this issue. For instance on Climate Street Froodly piloted new ways to reduce waste food in grocery stores: food that was about to go out of date was made more appealing with cute stickers saying “please, don’t let me go to waste” and supply was promoted in social media.

Another good example is ResQ app which is getting widely recognized.  It offers a great way for a consumer to find good deals from restaurants which sell servings that would otherwise go to waste for a discount price. Then there is Helsieni that reuses coffee grounds in farming oyster mushrooms and the best part is that you can also do it in your own home. And finally, From Waste to Taste –project which turns food waste into mouth-watering gourmet food in their waste food restaurant Loop.

These great examples presented in Peloton Club demonstrate that there are easy ways to reduce climate footprint of our food consumption and what is more, this can be fun! Peloton Club was a really empowering event because it made one realise that a lot has been done in reducing the climate footprint of food consumption and it seems that many of us share the same goal in doing so.

By Viliina Evokari, Climate Street -project
www.ilmastokatu.fi