Changing the way people eat: How mealboxes can contribute to sustainable food systems

The current food industry is failing: universal food security has not been achieved, one-third of all food in the world is wasted and environmental degradation is more extensive than it should be (FAO, 2014). With the expected rise in global population to ten billion eating people by 2050, the environmental outcomes of food systems can be devastating. This conclusion fuels the necessity for society to modify these local consumption and production patterns that are currently unsustainable (UNEP, 2016): the preservation of ecosystems and the future wellbeing of the human population are all centrally dependent on a structural transformation of the food system to a sustainable and resilient state. The client organization for this project is HelloFresh Benelux, the market leader in the mealbox industry in the Netherlands. HelloFresh intends to contribute to the food systems’ sustainability. Therefore this thesis aims to discover how HelloFresh can design for the sustainable development of the Dutch food industry. This thesis adopts a systemic design approach to capture the complexity of food systems. The approach lies in the middle of a field spanning from design practice to systems practice. It helps designers to deal with complex problems by engaging with the value conflicts between stakeholders to develop a broader and more holistic frame of reference. Knowledge was primarily obtained through interviews with actors along the value chain, with experts on the topic and with client employees. Three critical strategies for the sustainable development of Western food systems are established: improving production, reducing food waste and changing diets. Issues and obstacles in the current system were identified, clustered and connected to reveal three key factors accounting for the systems’ inertia. These are: i) Retailers lack the need for sustainability and for efforts outside of their operations, ii) Consumption patterns are unsustainable and the demand for sustainable products is generally low, and iii) the lack of a shared vision on sustainability along the supply chain. It was concluded that the final solution should establish interactions that stimulate sustainable choices in the digital choice environment, and that it should foster interactions favouring a chain approach and cooperation. This led to the final solution, ‘Together Towards Better’, a solution-oriented strategy for HelloFresh to work towards a greener value chain. Five symbols representing the diversity of food sustainability are the cornerstone of the strategy. The symbols are designed for simplicity and to radiate positivity. They allow for telling the story behind ingredients and celebrating independent sustainability achievements. The first phase of the strategy focuses on facilitating and stimulating sustainable consumption behaviour by the integration of the symbols in digital choice environments. The sustainability tags serve as focal points for customers, creating a hierarchy between ingredients and recipes, functioning as feedback mechanisms and rewarding people for making the green choice. Gamification and personal feedback are employed to stimulate customers' sustainable actions. The second phase aims to build long-term and sustainable relationships along the value chain to assist actors in their sustainability journey. The tags can convey the objectives of the strategy to supply chain partners and to communicate shared achievements to consumers. The final solution is supported by a communication strategy and an implementation roadmap. Finally, validation of the concept took place with consumers, an expert and a supplier to evaluate its desirability, feasibility and impact. The validation study led to recommendations for the implementation of the concept. The contributions of this thesis have the aim to demonstrate how mealboxes can contribute to the sustainability transition of the Dutch food industry.Master ThesisStrategic Product Desig