2023 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Promotion of sustainable food consumption: the evaluation of environmental burdens, psychological drivers and educational trials
| Project/Area Number |
23KJ0440
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
WU YINGLEI 東京大学, 工学系研究科, 特別研究員(DC2)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2023-04-25 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | sustainable diet, / dietary choice, / consumer choice, / life cycle assessment, / environmental education |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This research encompasses studies on consumer acceptance, motivations, and barriers to environmentally sustainable dietary transitions, life cycle assessments (LCA) of the environmental burdens of dietary choices, and educational trials to enhance life cycle thinking regarding dietary choices.
To measure the psychosocial factors associated with sustainable dietary transitions, online surveys were conducted across eight provinces/cities in China. A total of 3,999 valid responses were collected. Correspondence analysis were conducted to identify the key motivations and barriers for environmentally sustainable dietary choices.
LCA was employed to calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water footprint of various dietary choices at eight life cycle stages: production, processing, packaging, transportation, retail, cooking, consumption, and waste treatment. Scenario analysis compared the environmental impacts of different consumption patterns.
To nudge people towards environmentally sustainable diets, card game and post-game lectures were designed as promising interventions to enhance the life cycle thinking of consumers. The first educational trial was conducted with 37 university students in Tokyo in April 2024.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The three aspects of this research have almost finished as scheduled:
1.Motivations and barriers towards sustainable dietary choices.(1)Literature review and questionnaire design (September 2021-October 2022);(2)Online surveys in eight provinces in China (December 2022 to May 2023);(3)Data analysis (December 2022 to June 2023)
2.Life cycle assessment of environmental impacts of dietary choices (May 2023-January 2024)
3.Educational trials on sustainable dietary transitions.(1) Design of card game, small lectures, and questionnaires (February 2024-March 2024);(2) First trials of card game and questionnaire surveys (April 2024);(3) Data analysis of questionnaire surveys (April 2024)
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the future, I will improve the educational materials in the following aspects:(1) Trials on larger samples. I will continue conducting trials on larger samples, including university students in other countries, middle school students, and people other than students.
(2) Improvement of short lectures. Since many participants from the first trials recommended extending the time of lectures after the game and expressed a desire to learn more about the environmental impacts of dietary choices, I will add topics such as the impacts of carbon intensity of electricity generation on cooking methods and waste treatments to the slides for short lectures.
(3) Improvement of dish cards. I plan to add unique characteristics to each dish card to increase the attractiveness of the card game.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I will use the resarch fund to participate in international conferences, and conduct educational trails in the next fiscal year.
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