Publication Announcement: Briefing Note 4

Published by SHARECITY on the 22nd March 2021.

Briefing Note 4:

SHARE IT Sustainability Impact Assessment Toolkit

SHARECITY has published its fourth briefing note announcing the supports, services and opportunities available to food sharing initiatives, local authorities and food retailers through SHARECITY’s online sustainability impact assessment toolkit; SHARE IT.

SHARE IT offers a comprehensive platform to holistically capture the positive social, environmental and economic impacts food sharing initiatives can have. Co-designed with food sharing initiatives, SHARE IT enables sustainability impact assessment that is affordable, accessible, bespoke and validated by research. It collates the diverse range of direct, indirect and dispersed sustainability impacts these groups are creating. SHARE IT achieves this through three features:

The Toolshed: a bespoke suite of indicator questions gathers quantitative and qualitative data from food sharing initiatives’ activities, to auto-generate two reports: one detailed and one summary report of their social, economic, and environmental impacts. The reports include visual infographics that facilitate easy, evidence based communication and demonstrate how the food sharing initiative’s work contributes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The Talent Garden: a virtual platform to collate and share images, videos, reports, URLs, stories and other evidences of impact that cannot be captured through indicator questions in the Toolshed.

The Greenhouse: a community of practice that enables food sharing initiatives to connect and exchange knowledge and experiences.

SHARE IT is free at point of use for individual food sharing initiatives from community garden, to social dinning club, and from food rescue to seed sharing group, or any other food sharing activity. If you are a food sharing initiative please register below or email sharecity@tcd.ie for follow up support on how to get started.

If you are a retailer who would like to identify the impact of food donations you make or if you are a local authority who supports food sharing through access to land, skills and other resources and would like to know the impact of your investments please email sharecity@tcd.ie

SHARE IT Sustainability Solutions for Local Authorities

Food sharing is a growing community practice. SHARECITY 100 identified over 4000 food sharing initiatives in 100 cities, where groups come together to grow, eat or re-distribute food. Many of these groups are delivering local sustainability impacts and depend on supports and provisions from their local authorities

Local authorities play a crucial role in delivering national and international sustainability ambitions on the ground.  Local Authorities can support and maximise the positive impacts of food sharing initiatives through policy incentives, funding and the provision of public land. SHARE IT can enable local authorities to identify and communicate the social, economic and environmental impacts food sharing is having in their areas. SHARE IT delivers an evidence base to inform decision making to maximise local sustainability impacts in an easy to read format.

If you are a member of a local authority and are curious about the sustainability impacts food sharing initiatives are having in your area, why not book a free 30 minute consultation with the SHARECITY team to explore how SHARE IT can benefit you:

SHARE IT Sustainability Solutions for Food Retailers

More than a third of all food is wasted. Supermarkets are working with food sharing initiatives to divert surplus stock away from waste and towards those experiencing food poverty

Many food retailers are rising to the challenge of reducing food waste by donating surplus food stock to food sharing initiatives, who re-direct the food from waste streams to community groups providing a food service as part of their activities. Beyond avoiding waste, this redistribution of food can have widespread, diverse social, environmental and economic impacts within local communities. Understanding the full scale and range of these positive impacts can enable food retailers to better communicate their wider contributions to society. SHARE IT reports also include bespoke infographics to support communication of these sustainability impacts, with public engagement opportunities and applications beyond internal strategic planning.

If you are donating your surplus food for redistribution as part of your activities, why not sign up for a free 30 minute consultation with the SHARECITY team, to explore how SHARE IT can gather data and feedback to your team on the downstream positive impacts your supermarket’s food donations are having: