Literature Review of Methods and Tools for Quantifying the Indirect Environmental Impacts of Food Procurement

With food consumption accounting for up to one fifth of household greenhouse gas emissions, greater efforts must be made to measure and communicate the environmental impacts of dietary behavior, according to experts.  In response to this need, Clean Air-Cool Planet (CA-CP) - a nonprofit dedicated to climate change solutions – turned to the Center for a Livable Future for assistance in developing a tool for campus dining service providers to measure the environmental impacts of food procurement. CLF’s Brent Kim, research assistant; Roni Neff, research director; and Leana Houser, program manager, Living for The Future, developed methods for measuring these impacts on an individual and institutional level, as an aid to guide the development of the CA-CP tool, and have provided a report on their findings.