de La Coste Albergaria, Luisa (2025) An Investigation of Groningen’s municipality’s strategy to reduce its food waste through circular solutions. Master thesis, Sustainable Entrepreneurship (SE).
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Abstract
Food waste represents a significant sustainability challenge, with around one-thirds of food produced for human consumption never being eaten, thus heavily contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. This study examines how the municipality of Groningen can accelerate its transition to a zero-waste food system by 2030 using a Theory of Change (ToC) framework. It uses a qualitative case study methodology, conducting eight interviews with stakeholders from the public sector, civil society and sustainable entrepreneurship, complemented by a literature review. The results indicate that the current approach in Groningen is fragmented, lacks comprehensive data and relies mainly on downstream solutions such as composting rather than prevention strategies. The main challenges are the absence of adapted measurement systems, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of collaboration between stakeholders. The study shows that effective reduction of urban food waste requires integrated approaches combining behavioural change, cross-sector collaboration and the development of systemic infrastructures. This thesis recommends three measures to the municipality of Groningen: a transparent data monitoring system with public dashboards, the redirection of financial incentives from composting to upstream reduction solutions, and the designation of a circular food facilitator to coordinate multi-stakeholder collaboration. These interventions can reduce waste, while also promoting food democracy, and providing a replicable model for European municipalities aiming to achieve zero waste targets.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Name supervisor: | Cardoso Chrispim, M. |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Jul 2025 07:04 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Jul 2025 07:04 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/739 |
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