Quantification of the potential climate benefits associated with changes in plate food waste mass following a behavioral intervention during lunch in a university canteen of the University of Padova

Food waste represents a systemic inefficiency in global production and consumption patterns, contributing to approximately 8–10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and undermining agri-food system resilience. In the context of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3, which targets halving per capita food waste by 2030, the food service sector has been identified as a major source of food waste. The effectiveness of behavioral intervention in a university canteen setting is evaluated using a life cycle-based carbon footprint approach to quantify potential climate benefits and avoided GHG emissions. The assessment includes the upstream emissions associated with food production and the downstream climate impacts of waste management activities. The study focuses specifically on plate waste, which often represents a dominant fraction of food waste in canteens. Baseline measurements identified an initial waste intensity of 37.0 g per meal, which was reduced to 21.3 g per meal following a behavioral awareness intervention, corresponding to a 42% reduction in waste mass. This reduction corresponded to a potential avoided carbon footprint of 0.031 kg CO₂-eq per served meal. When scaled to the canteen activity level, assuming approximately 630 meals per day and 195 operating days per academic year, this corresponds to about 3.8 tonnes CO₂-eq potentially avoided per academic year at the Agripolis canteen. Although the awareness-based intervention substantially reduced plate waste, the findings indicate that behavioral measures should be considered as part of a broader prevention strategy that also takes into the account factors influencing food waste generation. Integrating student feedback with regular waste monitoring, menu planning, and portion adjustment can help identify issues related to food acceptability and meal characteristics and inform more targeted waste prevention measures. Scaling such approaches across food service settings could further increase their potential environmental benefits.