The theme is "Sustainability and Climate Change" and the clients are Dr. Lim & Tilemachos C. along with stakeholders at the City of Vancouver
Link to User Facing Video :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twYjJ-1UFtI Link to Technical Video :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eHJvARFHN0&t=96s
The Green Food Challenge application aims to help people collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Metro Vancouver.
As Canadians, we often think of ourselves as surrounded by nature and thoughtful about the environment. Since 2011, Vancouver has spearheaded the Greenest City Action Plan, with the goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. One of the plan's ten goals is to have a lighter footprint by reducing Vancouver's carbon footprint by 33% over 2006 levels.
Greenhouse gases, measured in CO2e (CO2 equivalents), include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, and are known to directly contribute to climate change. In 2015, regional emissions in Metro Vancouver were projected to be 14.9 million tonnes of CO2e, between 6-8 tonnes per capita. It is estimated that global emissions must be reduced to approximately 2 tonnes per capita by 2050.
There are many CO2e contributors to the carbon footprint, including transportation and buildings. Municipalities and businesses are currently undertaking measures to reduce their footprints. For example, Metro Vancouver is promoting transit over cars, and buildings are changing their heating systems from natural gas to hydroelectric.
Despite these efforts to reduce carbon footprint, at the current rate, Vancouver is unlikely to meet its 2020 target. What else can be done to mitigate climate change? Aside from taking transit, is there anything else individuals can do?
Food is generally under-reported as a source of CO2e. For instance in Europe, agriculture contributes to 10% of the carbon footprint. In particular, ruminants such as sheep and cows produce methane through enteric fermentation (i.e. they pass gas) and produce more CO2e than other types of animals. According to the European Commission, the vast majority of methane emissions (85%) come from ruminants’ digestion.
There are 2.46 million people living in the Metro Vancouver area, and about 90% of them eat food that are relatively high in CO2e (i.e., are non-vegetarian). If each of those people reduced their beef or lamb consumption from 35% to 10% and replaced it with chicken, Vancouver could save 900,000 to 1 million tonnes of CO2e per year.
The goal of the Green Food Challenge is to raise awareness about the CO2e impact of food and promote behaviour change. The Green Food Challenge mobile application teaches people how much CO2e their diet produces, and discover how much CO2e they and their community could save by making dietary adjustments. Over the course of the Green Food Challenge, participants track their "green meals", containing chicken, seafood or vegetable-based proteins. Participants can see how many tonnes of CO2e they save as a community, as well as share restaurants that offer delicious “low carbon” meals. By incentivizing these CO2e-friendly meals, participants learn to sustainably change their eating habits towards a lighter footprint.
The Green Food Challenge application will be created in 3 phases (sprints):
- Green Food Challenge Carbon Calculator
- Green Food Challenge Group Pledge
- Green Food Challenge Restaurant Guide