Work

A tool to assess the territorial sustainability of collective catering and support its transition

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Public food procurement has been described and analysed as a powerful means to support sustainability transition of food systems. Several studies on design processes highlighted the role and the importance of sustainability assessment to support agroecological transition of farming and food systems. This work aimed at co-designing a tool to assess the territorial sustainability of collective catering. We developed an easy to use and adaptable hierarchical and qualitative multi-criteria assessment tool composed of twenty-seven basic criteria organized around three main dimensions (economic, socio-cultural, territorial health) inspired by the three pillars of sustainability. In the end, the tool provides both a global level of territorial sustainability (ranking from A + to F) and the detail for each criterion. The application to 20 collective catering structures and the discussion of the results with the stakeholders were used to investigate the usefulness of the tool in supporting sustainability transition. By feeding both individual assessments in the form of a pedagogic report and cross-analysis at the territorial scale, the outputs from the tool were considered as helpful in engaging practices changes by different actors and at different scales.

Source: Cleaner Production Letters

DOI: 10.1016/j.clpl.2026.100160

Authors: Margot Leclère, Othilie Cazier, Chloé Sallas, Lise Pujos

Institutions: AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay, Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, Agronomie

Language: English

Topic: Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact

Subfield: Ecology

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Responsible consumption and production, Zero hunger

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,270