On the occasion of the conference 'Sustainable public catering in NRW' of the consumer center of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), a federal state within Germany, the study "Paths to a sustainable public catering in North Rhine-Westphalia" conducted by ConPolicy was published. During the conference, Prof. Dr. Christian Thorun presented the main results of the study in a forum and then moderated the discussion of the recommendations.
The study first highlights selected good practice examples of sustainable public catering, e.g. in schools or public canteens, in other cities and federal states. Based on an analysis of the specific framework conditions in NRW, recommendations for a (more) sustainable public catering in NRW are derived. It is recommended to initiate a dialogue process on sustainable nutrition to develop a nutrition strategy for NRW. Furthermore, it is recommended to initiate concrete implementation structures for municipalities: Regional competence centers for sustainable procurement and value creation, a state program for organic cities in NRW and a consulting organization for sustainable catering.
As part of the discussion forum 'Political strategies for sustainable public catering in NRW', the recommendations were discussed and enriched with further ideas. Overall, there was agreement that a political framework, e.g. through a nutrition strategy, is needed in order to successfully promote sustainable public catering in NRW.
An Executive Summary has been published for the long version of the study.
More information about the project can be found here.