To catalyse essential action towards reducing food waste and achieving SDG 12.3, it's imperative to grasp the extent of food waste. Measuring food waste allows countries to comprehend the magnitude of the issue, thereby revealing the size of the opportunity, while establishing a baseline for tracking progress. The Food Waste Index Report 2021 marked a pivotal moment in understanding global food waste across retail, food service, and household sectors. It unveiled a greater availability of food waste data than anticipated, particularly at the household level, and revealed that per capita household food waste generation was more consistent worldwide than previously thought. The Food Waste Index Report 2024 builds upon its predecessor in three key ways: Firstly, it incorporates vastly expanded data points from around the world, providing a significantly more robust global and national estimates, detailed in Chapter 2 of the main report. Secondly, it expands on the SDG 12.3 food waste measurement methodology introduced in the 2021 report, offering enhanced guidance on measurement across retail, food service, and household sectors. This additional guidance delves into various methodologies, their strengths and limitations, and strategies for prioritising sub-sectors for measurement, as explored in Chapter 3. Lastly, the report transitions from focusing solely on food waste measurement to exploring solutions for food waste reduction. The chapter examines effective approaches to reducing food waste globally, with a spotlight on public-private partnerships in this 2024 report.
This policy-driven focus coincides with on-the-ground implementation at scale. The new £120 million Avonmouth and Severnside flood mitigation scheme exemplifies green infrastructure in practice, integrating biodiversity restoration with climate resilience. By adopting nature-based solutions, the project highlights both the environmental sustainability in construction and the environmental impact of construction avoided when low-impact construction techniques replace conventional flood defences. It reinforces the alignment of sustainable urban development with circular construction strategies that protect communities while restoring ecosystems.
Materials innovation is reshaping supply chains across sectors with direct relevance to building lifecycle performance. Mercedes-Benz’s investment in low embodied carbon materials such as hydrogen-produced aluminium signals the reach of circular economy in construction principles into manufacturing and design. For construction leaders, the example underscores the potential of low carbon construction materials and low carbon design in cutting the carbon footprint of construction. These approaches allow specifiers to consider environmental product declarations (EPDs) and sustainable building practices as integral to material selection, ensuring a verifiable reduction of embodied carbon.
Uncertainty in policy has provoked industry concern. Proposals to loosen or repeal long-standing climate targets raise risks for net zero carbon buildings and carbon neutral construction. Without legislative continuity, early adopters of sustainable material specification, breeam certification and breeam v7 standards face obstacles in scaling best practice. The industry recognises that decarbonising the built environment depends not only on green building materials and eco-friendly construction, but also on supportive frameworks that provide the long-term certainty required for investment in sustainable design.
Corporate and investor scrutiny is further driving the sector towards transparency. Companies are increasingly pressured to view sustainability in terms of building lifecycle performance, life cycle thinking in construction, and resource efficiency in construction. Missteps in carbon footprint reduction will not go unnoticed when investors demand proof of low carbon buildings through robust lifecycle assessment. The study published this week stresses that environmental sustainability in construction is not a one-time achievement but a re-engineering of practice around sustainable architecture, end-of-life reuse in construction, and circular economy strategies that anchor green construction in measurable outcomes.
Momentum is clearly visible in the expansion of circular economy in construction systems. Reclaimed materials, adaptive reuse and sustainable building practices are expanding from pilot schemes into mainstream deployment. With eco-design for buildings advancing and sustainable construction gradually normalising across markets, the sector is shifting sustainable goals into tangible, energy-efficient buildings. Each project contributes to cutting the embodied carbon of the built environment, reaffirming confidence that low carbon building practices can evolve into the global benchmark for sustainability.
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