Food Sustainability Challenge
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Status of project
Completed -
Region
Europe -
Country
United Kingdom -
Topic
Public Engagement
About the project
The UK Food Sustainability Challenge is a three year project funded by The Rothschild Foundation, which focuses on the topic of food sustainability and climate change.
The UK Food Sustainability Challenge aims to work with botanic gardens in the UK to gather examples of ways in which botanic gardens are engaging their visitors and the local community with food sustainability – whether that be growing their own vegetables, community gardening, composting, sustainable diets or projects around food diversity and resilience. We are also investigating existing UK projects and campaigns on the topic of food sustainability that gardens can get involved with and developing smaller food based projects in conjunction with gardens to develop some of these ideas further. Finally we are coordinating a UK food sustainability consortium to discuss the role that botanic gardens are and could be playing in engaging the general public on this important subject.
The culmination of this work is the identification of a series of possible food sustainability challenges that can be developed into full scale challenges as part of a larger, global project – The Sustainability Challenge.
BGCI has over 55 member gardens in the UK, including RBG Kew, RBG Edinburgh, the Eden Project and the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Many of our UK member gardens are world leaders in sustainable practices, including water saving, renewable energy, recycling, composting, sustainable food sourcing and avoiding food waste.
Activities
Key activities of this project include:
- A literature review of food sustainability activities within UK botanic gardens and the wider community
- A best practice report of UK food sustainability case studies
- Development of a Food Sustainability Consortium
- Development of a wider global sustainability challenge project
Progress So Far
Literature Review
In the first two years of the project we undertook a literature review of UK botanic gardens, to gather case studies on existing programmes and initiatives around food sustainability. This included surveys, data searches, and interviews with individual gardens.
Best Practice Report
In addition we carried out a global survey of our members to look at what gardens are currently doing to contribute to climate change action – through their own internal practices and the way in which they engage their visitors with these messages. The result was the BGCI Technical Review – The role of botanic gardens in practicing and promoting environmental sustainability.
Food Sustainability Consortium
Many botanic gardens use food as a tool to highlight the important uses of plants as well as raising awareness of sustainability issues. Food topics used effectively can generate discussion and inclusive experiences for all ages and increase engagement in gardens and outdoor spaces. We have now developed a basic action plan for the BGCI/Bgen Food Consortium, and are looking for a few more representatives to engage with the consortium in bi annual meetings. disseminating key messages, sharing resources with the aim to support gardens to discuss food sustainability effectively.
Our first meeting is on the 11th May at 10:30, where we plan to agree the actions going forward, explore the option for a Manifesto and look at ways to support garden needs.
A Wider Global Sustainability Challenge Project
The BGCI Sustainability Challenge aims to work with leading botanic gardens to develop a series of simple, small-scale sustainability challenges, with associated incentives, that aim to empower and bring about behavioural change amongst garden visitors and the broader community. We have funded 3 projects so far:
- BCGI Food Waste Challenge: A 30-day challenge which aims to challenge visitors of botanic gardens to reduce their fruit and vegetable waste by adopting different behaviours.
- Plate Palate: A in garden activity where you record your personal eating over 1 week looking at the carbon footprint of each meal, with the aim to eat more environmentally friendly food.
- Plant Warriors: An in garden activity which encourages the public to adopt environmental friendly behaviours to support buying indoor plants. Displaying lots of indoor houseplants, they highlight their origins and how to be more eco-friendly with it.
To help with funding we are asking gardens to express an interest in the sustainability challenge, this will help us promote to funders the potential reach of this project.
BGCI Sustainability Challenge
UK Food Sustainability Opportunities for Botanic Gardens
Below is a list of existing projects and campaigns that focus on food sustainability that botanic gardens can get involved with.
Contact
For additional information about this project or if you are a UK botanic garden that would like to get involved with the project please contact Helen Miller or Dominic Grantley-Smith.
