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.
Lower-carbon product systems are moving from sustainability claims into industrial-scale sustainable construction. Holcim’s circular roofing line in Heinsberg, Germany, will recycle production scrap into raw material for up to 12m sq metres of membrane, strengthening the case for circular economy in construction, resource efficiency in construction and end-of-life reuse in construction. Roofing, insulation and membranes are no longer peripheral to environmental sustainability in construction: their volume, replacement cycles and material intensity make them central to whole life carbon, embodied carbon and the carbon footprint of construction.
Low carbon construction materials are also gaining traction in major urban schemes. The use of ECOPact low-carbon concrete in Casablanca’s Casa Anfa development shows how green construction and low carbon building strategies are being tested beyond pilot projects. The market still needs stronger transparency on embodied carbon in materials, environmental product declarations (EPDs), lifecycle assessment and whole life carbon assessment. Without comparable data, clients cannot reliably judge whether green building products deliver genuine carbon footprint reduction, improved building lifecycle performance or credible progress towards net zero whole life carbon.
Climate resilience is becoming inseparable from sustainable building design. Forecasts of an exceptionally hot El Niño year in 2027 reinforce the need for low carbon design, eco-design for buildings and energy-efficient buildings that reduce overheating risk while limiting life cycle cost. Heat-reflecting, lower-impact insulation and other low embodied carbon materials will be increasingly important in sustainable material specification, particularly in temperate markets facing more severe summer conditions.
DNV’s projection that global net zero may not be reached until the 2090s sharpens the commercial case for net zero carbon buildings, carbon neutral construction and sustainable urban development that can withstand a hotter, more volatile climate. BREEAM, BREEAM v7 and wider sustainable building practices will face growing scrutiny as clients demand evidence of net zero carbon performance, whole life carbon assessment and circular construction strategies. The strongest businesses in decarbonising the built environment will be those able to prove circular economy outcomes, low-impact construction, renewable building materials and measurable embodied carbon reductions at scale.
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