A sustainable business model to fight food waste I. Ribeiro * , P. Sobral, P. Peças, E. Henriques IDMEC, Instituto Superior T ecnico, Lisbon University, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal article info Article history: Received 3 October 2016 Received in revised form 13 November 2017 Accepted 23 December 2017 Available online 28 December 2017 Keywords: Food waste Sustainable business model Life Cycle Cost (LCC) Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Social-Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) Social Return on Investment (SROI) abstract Food waste is major problem in developed countries, with the latest studies pointing to one third of the food produced worldwide. This problem occurs throughout the food value stream and has economic, environmental and social consequences. This study focuses on a solution developed in Portugal for a specific type of waste, vegetables and fruits discarded by farmers due to aesthetic reasons. Although with the same quality, their appearance is not within the requirements set by the main retailers and therefore not commercialized and consumed. The project developed to tackle this problem is a non-profit co-op, called Fruta Feia (Ugly Fruit) that commercializes this type of products that farmers cannot sell through the conventional channels. Tested successfully in Lisbon region, is now being replicated in Porto region. This study aims at assessing the sustainability of this project and its business model regarding the three pillars of sustainability e economic, environmental and social. For this, Life Cycle Assessment, invest- ment appraisal, Social-Life Cycle Assessment and Social Return on Investment methods are used and compared, aiming also at the discussion of the key success factors of Fruta Feia project. Results showed not only the sustainability of the project, but also the suitability of the methods applied to assess the sustainability of a business model. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction About one third of the food produced in the world every year is wasted. According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), developed countries waste more than 1.3 thousand of million tons of food every year, enough to feed 795 million people that are starving worldwide (Gustavsson et al., 2011). The scale of the problem is attracting increasing attention due to its environmental, social and economic impacts. In fact, this waste is not only unethical but also carries environmental and economic consequences: it in- volves the unnecessary use of resources in its production - if less food were wasted, fewer resources would be required to produce food that is not consumed (Thyberg and Tonjes, 2016). Further- more, depending on the waste management system, food waste may go to landfills where is converted in methane, a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 25 times greater than carbon dioxide on a 100-year time scale. Economically, food waste has a direct and negative impact on the income of farmers and con- sumers. Improving the efficiency of the supply chain can reduce food cost, increase food security to consumers and create oppor- tunities for new business fields (Papargyropoulou et al., 2014). From an ethical perspective, Cicatiello et al. (2016) emphasized the paradox of the excess of daily calories in countries like Italy, Poland, Portugal and Lithuania where, at the same time, there is a remarkable quota of the population living in poverty conditions. Parfitt et al. (2010) refers that the waste or diversion of food from human consumption is seen as immoral. Food waste is therefore a triple bottom line problem, affecting “people, planet and profit” (Elkington, 1997). A comprehensive study by Papargyropoulou et al. (2014) ana- lysed the food supply chain to understand the causes of food waste, defined the environmental, financial and social implications and suggested both the adoption of a sustainable production and con- sumption approach and the reduction of food surplus and waste throughout the global food supply chain. Thyberg and Tonjes (2016) identified the main drivers for food loss and waste as infrastructure limitations, climate and environ- mental factors, quality, aesthetic or safety standards, together with decisions made by consumers and businesses. These latter two causes of food waste are connected, as the preference for “perfect” fruits and vegetables have fostered consumers and businesses to remove non-standard food from the supply chain, though that food is suitable for human consumption. Such preference results in a * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ines.ribeiro@tecnico.ulisboa.pt (I. Ribeiro), pedromsobral@ gmail.com (P. Sobral), ppecas@tecnico.ulisboa.pt (P. Peças), elsa.h@tecnico.ulisboa. pt (E. Henriques). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Cleaner Production journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jclepro https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.200 0959-6526/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of Cleaner Production 177 (2018) 262e275