3 Steps to Climate-Smart Dining

The climate crisis can be overwhelming, to say the least. And yet, each of us has the opportunity, three times a day, to take powerful and yet mostly overlooked steps for individual climate action. This starts on our plates. That’s right—what we eat makes a huge difference when it comes to tackling climate change. Enter: climate-smart dining.

Step 1

Reduce Food Waste

According to Project Drawdown, one of the world’s leading climate organizations based remotely across the U.S. with Bay Area roots, reducing food waste is the #1 most effective solution for reversing global warming.

This beats out the usual suspects from the energy and transportation sectors like solar panels and electric cars. How can this be? In Project Drawdown’s words: “A third of the food raised or prepared does not make it from farm or factory to fork. Producing uneaten food squanders a whole host of resources—seeds, water, energy, land, fertilizer, hours of labor, financial capital—and generates greenhouse gases at every stage—including methane when organic matter lands in the global rubbish bin.” All that totals to yet another staggering stat cited by Project Drawdown, which is that food waste is responsible for roughly 8% of the world’s greenhouse gases.

Step 2

Eat Plant-Forward

Climate-smart dining doesn’t end with minimizing food loss and waste. According to Project Drawdown, eating plant-rich diets is the #3 most effective climate solution. Called many different things—“plant-centric,” “flexitarian,” even “plant-positive,” the Menus of Change initiative and countless organizations in the food service industry have adopted the term “plant forward, “ which is defined as “a style of cooking and eating that emphasizes and celebrates, but is not limited to, plant-based foods—including fruits and vegetables (produce); whole grains; beans, other legumes (pulses) and soy foods; nuts and seeds; plant oils; and herbs and spices—and that reflects evidence-based principles of health and sustainability.”

Far from asking everyone to go full vegan or vegetarian, this big-tent approach includes vegan and vegetarian meals but also omnivorous choices that simply reduce the emphasis on animal protein, shifting it to a supporting role—from meat-mushroom blended burgers to small portions (like, 2 ounces) of meat served as a condiment (such as in salads, bowls, pastas and soups).

There’s a lot of plates spinning to try to tackle the emergency of climate change in front of us all, with plans to make real, sustainable change to our food systems and meal options. Making this change will require all of us, plate by plate, with bold action.

Why do plant-rich diets rank so high in terms of climate-smart dining? Because of the outsized impact of most livestock production, from the perspectives of land use, water use and greenhouse gas emissions, compared to the relatively low environmental impacts of producing foods from the plant kingdom. It’s the reason protein purchases are the focus of a groundbreaking initiative called Collective Impact, led by the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative.

Jointly founded and co-led by the Culinary Institute of America and Stanford University—and with a shared belief that students are the best way forward—we in the MCURC work toward a collective target to reduce food-related emissions by 25% by 2030 across our 68 member colleges and universities, through shifts in our protein purchases. Combined, this effort represents millions of pounds of food. Local institutions that are members of this collaborative include UCSF, Cal, UC Davis, Google and LinkedIn. This research agenda reimagines campus dining halls as living laboratories, precisely to figure out the most effective ways to reduce food waste and increase plant-forward menus. 

There’s a lot of plates spinning to try to tackle the emergency of climate change in front of us all, with plans to make real, sustainable change to our food systems and meal options. Making this change will require all of us, plate by plate, with bold action.

Step 3

Stay Food Smart

To truly scale climate solutions across sectors, Project Drawdown has in recent years launched Drawdown Labs, a consortium of bold private-sector leaders. Proudly, its membership is packed with Silicon Valley representation, including Stanford University’s department, R&DE Stanford Dining—the first university-based member and the first food service member to join this powerhouse coalition. More concretely, R&DE Stanford Dining works on climate-smart dining as one of the six core pillars of its award-winning sustainable food program, One Plate, One Planet. It embraces the full set of evidence-based strategies to make an impact through menu and sourcing across the supply chain—from regenerative agriculture to curbing deforestation.

Encouragingly, consumer insights data indicates growing demand for these two food-related climate solutions—from enjoying more plant-based proteins at restaurants to purchasing upcycled foods in the grocery store. All signs point to climate-smart dining as not merely a fad, but a new normal—in fact, the very choice for better food and a healthier planet. 

Guest contributor Sophie Egan is senior advisor for sustainable food systems at R&DE Stanford Dining, co-director of the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, and co-lead of Drawdown Labs’ Climate-Smart Food and Agriculture Working Group. Sophie holds a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from UC Berkeley, and has authored food-smart books and articles, including her latest release, How to be a Conscious Eater (Workman Publishing, 2020).