INSEAD has designed a Sustainable Food Habits Challenge to support the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Food affects us all and we can all make a difference! This challenge is for everyone – whoever you are, whatever profession you are in and wherever you live. And it can be extended to your company or organization.

The Sustainable Food Habits Challenge is part of INSEAD Community Impact Challenge (CIC), an alumni-driven, long-term initiative globally launched on December 1, 2019, led by a group of volunteers within the INSEAD community and supported by Hoffman Global Institute for Business and Society, INSEAD, the INSEAD Alumni Association and INDEVOR – INSEAD’s Social Impact Club. CIC mobilizes this community with concrete actions to create a positive impact, aligned with the United nations Sustainable Development Goals.

What is the Challenge Focused On?

The challenge is built around three pillars to support more sustainable habits around food:

  • Reducing your meat and dairy intake and finding great alternatives
  • Reducing food waste by optimizing the quantity of food coming into your home and minimizing the amount of food you throw out, and being more aware of the quantities you order when eating out
  • Increasing your awareness around the origin of your food to make more informed choices

What can you Expect?

INSEAD is working with a leading climate app that is sponsoring a customized experience for this challenge in their existing app. They will offer a mix of gamification to get you mobilized, tips and tricks to support your habit change, and hard facts to raise awareness and knowledge about sustainable activities around food. Once you register and download the app, you are ready to go.

You can invite your colleagues and employees to join the challenge by registering on the same registration link. You can also set up a company/group challenge with the app that will be delivered to each participant. You will be able to personalize the challenge with your company name and brand in the app.

What is the Process?

There are 3 phases in the Sustainable Food Habits Challenge.

Phase 1: Pre-Challenge Phase: October 15 – 31, 2020

  • Observe your food habits – for example, what do you buy? How much meat and dairy do you consume? How much food do you waste?
  • Measure your food CO2e emissions
  • Understand what your biggest levers are to reduce the CO2e and GHG emissions
  • Decide which pillars of the food challenge you want to concentrate on? Depending on your current habits (e.g. high meat consumption or vegetarian, amount of waste, prior knowledge concerning food origin e.t.c)
  • Get your organization involved. You can form an individual team (complete with your logo and own leaderboard).
  • Get as many people as you can on board (household, family, friends)

Phase 2: Challenge Phase: November 1 – December 12, 2020

The six weeks are divided into periods of two weeks (weeks 1 and 2, weeks 3 and 4, weeks 5 and 6), where you are encouraged to incrementally increase your impact in the pillars you’ve chosen. For example, in the pillar of meat and dairy, you may be asked to replace a certain percentage of meat meals with non-meat meals. In the two-week period, you will be supported with tips and tricks, helpful reminders and location suggestions to support you reaching the goals for that period. Furthermore, you will be nourished with a variety of information (videos, reports) to increase your knowledge about this complex topic. The app is easy to use, and you can take as much or little time as you wish for this challenge. Every step counts!

Throughout the six weeks, you will be able to see the CO2e emissions impact of your actions. In addition, you will be able to share your experiences and learn from other participants. If the competition mobilizes you to change, you will love matching yourself against the best of the best in the leaderboard function of the app.

Phase 3: End of Challenge and Beyond: December 12 onwards

At the end of the challenge you can measure your new carbon footprint and understand CO2e emissions impact on your sustainable habits. You can continue using the app to further support your new habits. INSEAD would also send you some questions about your habit in order to better understand the impact to incorporate the learning in the future challenges. They would also contact you three months after the challenge to further solidify your habit change and understands better how to continue to support you.

Register Here