8/6/2019 Project Description: Qualitative and quantitative analysis of public opinions and criteria for sustainable food and bio

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RUNNING PROJECT

Title

PhD-student: Sebastian Olnyi, MSc, Tel: +31 (0)15 27 89308e-mail s.olenyi@tudelft.nl

Promotor: Prof. Patricia OsseweijerSupervisor: Dr. Robin PierceInstitute: Delft University of Technology, Department of

Biotechnology, Biotechnology and Society groupProject term: December 2010 December 2014Financed by: BE Basic: Bio-Based, Ecologically Balanced Sustainable

Chemical Industry

DescriptionQualitative and quantitative analysis of public opinions and criteria forsustainable bioproducts

A project to evaluate consumer, industry and stakeholder knowledge, perceptions, attitudes,information sources and buying behavior towards sustainable food and biomass products.

Sustainability as term was especially put on the agenda with and after the Brundtlandreport. Sustainable development was defined as development that meets the needs of thepresent without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Theencyclopedia Britannica defines it as relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using aresource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.These rather philosophical definitions are enriched with about 200 other scientific orstakeholder definitions of the term taking into consideration social, economic andenvironmental aspects. This concept however is already put into practice: The Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy as transforming life sciences knowledge into () sustainable products

and sustainability evaluations on such criteria as Carbon Footprint, energy needs, waterusage, Fairtrade are just some examples where the sustainability concept is gaining pace.Countless labels, prices and criteria for sustainability and sustainable products exist. TheRainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels, EU Organic are just someof the certification schemes trying to get suppliers and customers trust and attention.Behind them: NGOs, governments, a whole label industry developing. Moreover, big retailand food production players come up with their own sustainability criteria and reportingschemes. Some of them are greenwashing, all of them could be seen as in some wayincomplete, also because there exists confusion about what sustainability really means. Andsustainability information is in a lot of cases very abstract and dispersed only in the scientificand retailer worlds. Integration of this information into daily life and the knowledge whichkind of information and criteria should be prioritized remains sparse.

Combining with a transdisciplinary approach linking social, communication, environmentaland economic aspects of sustainability, this project analyses sustainability knowledge, criteriaand the attitudes and priorities towards them. It aims to clarify unfunded assumptions thatinfluence the innovation chain. This shall allow labels, retailers, companies and politicians tore-adjust their priorities, communication and engagement for sustainability and to learn moreabout sustainability aspects.

8/6/2019 Project Description: Qualitative and quantitative analysis of public opinions and criteria for sustainable food and bio

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The project is funded and placed within the BE Basic program 9.1 and is accompanied by ablog (www.biosustainable.net) and a Twitter account (www.twitter.com/biosustainable).

PICTURE:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/Sustainable_development.svg/

640px-Sustainable_development.svg.pngPicture by Johann Dro, published on Wikipedia under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0.

References

Marshall, J. D., & Toffel, M. W. (2005). Framing the Elusive Concept of Sustainability: A

Sustainability Hierarchy. Environmental Science & Technology, 39(3), 673-682.

American Chemical Society. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es040394k.

Kates, R., Parris, T., & Leiserowitz, A. (2005). What is sustainable development?

Environment, 47(3), 8 - 21. Retrieved January 6, 2011, from

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sustsci/ists/docs/whatisSD_env_kates_0504.pdf.

Barr, S. (2003). Strategies for sustainability: citizens and responsible environmental

behaviour. Area, 35(3), 227-240. Retrieved from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1475-

4762.00172.

Vermeir, I., & Verbeke, W. (2006). Sustainable Food Consumption: Exploring the Consumer

Attitude Behavioral Intention Gap. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental

Ethics, 19(2), 169-194. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10806-005-5485-3.

Saunders, C., Guenther, M., Kaye-Blake, W., Mili, S., & Tait, P. (2010). Consumer attitudes

towards sustainability attributes on food labels. Nelson, New Zealand: NZARES

Conference. Retrieved from http://purl.umn.edu/96944.