Case Study: Embedding Sustainability in Dietetic Placements (2025)


At a Glance:

  • A practical toolkit for United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service (NHS) Trusts to support dietetic students in completing sustainability-focused projects on placement.
  • Encourages UK NHS Trusts to embed sustainability in routine audit, service evaluation, and/or health promotion activities.
  • Provides key information, time-saving templates, case studies, and signposting to other resources.
  • Aims to increase staff and student awareness of sustainability issues and to develop confidence to tackle them. 
  • Lessons Learnt: The toolkit is about to be piloted in practice, so learning is yet to happen.

Background

Sustainability is increasingly recognised as a critical component of healthcare, and dietitians have a unique role in its promotion. Whilst they are perfectly placed to support individuals with small changes to increase the sustainability of their diets, they can also be key agents for change at an organisational level. 

With the UK NHS committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2040, system-wide changes in practice, culture, and education are undoubtedly required. Despite this, sustainability is not consistently embedded in dietetic education or clinical placements, and many students complete their education with limited exposure to the sustainability agenda. 

Key barriers identified by dietetic educators and UK NHS Trust placement providers include a lack of time and a lack of confidence to guide students in sustainability-related projects. While enthusiasm exists, placement supervisors often struggle to identify projects that are achievable within placement structures that additionally align with professional competencies. 

The Toolkit Idea

To address this gap, a toolkit is being developed to support UK NHS Trusts in setting sustainability-themed projects for dietetic students during placements. The aim is to make sustainability an integrated and achievable aspect of training, without placing additional burden on supervisors. 

The toolkit will include: 

  • Key information – about the importance of sustainability for nutrition/healthcare professionals. 
  • A “Quick Start” guide – for ease of use.
  • Student project templates – adaptable briefs for audits, quality improvement projects, and health promotion activities.
  • Case studies – to provide inspiration by showcasing other student projects. 
  • Signposting and resources – for further information if required. 

Once the student has completed their sustainability project, they present and discuss their findings with their department to promote learning at an organisational level. The toolkit will encourage students to make practical recommendations to the Trust, aiming to increase the sustainability of their service and move the organisation closer to the UK NHS’ net zero ambitions. 

Implementation 

The Greener Projects Toolkit is being finalised through consultation with academic educators, based on the current available evidence and experience regarding barriers to embedding sustainability into dietetic education. The literature suggests that whilst sustainability is seen as important, time and confidence are substantial barriers to its integration. The toolkit is therefore being designed with ease-of-use as a priority to allow for easy and swift implementation by users. 

Once complete, the toolkit will be piloted with UK NHS Trusts providing dietetic placements for students at the University of Plymouth. Further improvements and developments will be made based on staff and student feedback. 

Food for Thought

  • How could sustainability be more consistently integrated into professional training and practice?
  • What role can students play in leading organisational change?
  • How might small placement projects contribute to larger organisational net zero ambitions? 

Contact Information



The ICDA SFS Toolkit is made to be used & shared freely.
Please cite the authors of the resources you use
, and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you are able:
InternationalDietetics.org/Sustainability

Created 2025 October

Case Studies: Food + Planet

Discover actionable insights from Food + Planet case studies, showcasing innovative collaborations and strategies to advance sustainability in food systems.

From reducing food waste and promoting plant-based menus to ocean-friendly seafood choices and empowering dietitians globally, these examples highlight the transformative impact of the 4 Dimensions Sustainable Diet Framework.

The ICDA SFS toolkit has one as well, and Food + Planet are adding more all the time.

Case Study: Sustainable Collaboration: University College Dublin and Airfield Estate, Dublin, Ireland (2025)


At a Glance

  • Airfield Estate and the School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science (SPHPSS), University College Dublin (UCD) began a collaboration in 2017, which was extended to the School of Agriculture and Food Science (SAFS) in 2020.
  • A senior UCD academic from the SPHPSS has contributed to Airfield’s Education and Research Committee since 2020.
  • The collaboration has enabled student training and research relevant to sustainable food systems through BSc human nutrition undergraduate work placements, and MSc dietetics and PhD nutritional science projects for over seven years. It has allowed Airfield Estate to establish itself as a research body on both national and international stages.
    • UCD gains access to the public and use of the farm, gardens, restaurant, and demonstration kitchen for practice-based training of students and research studies.
    • Airfield Estate gains access to academic processes and research project supervision.
  • This UCD-Airfield Estate collaboration provides a mutually beneficial, relatively low-cost structure to create research, train students, and access the public.

Background:

Airfield Estate is a 38-acre working farm and gardens located in the suburbs of Dublin, Ireland.  Open every day to the public, its aim is to become Dublin’s Sustainable Food Hub in a world-leading, sustainable food city.  Run as an organic and regenerative farm, the Estate completes the farm-to-fork story with a restaurant and farmers market supplied by the farm and gardens.  As an organisation that has 230,000 visitors a year, and which has both an educational and research remit, it offers an opportunity for its local University, UCD, to collaborate on a range of projects.  UCD, a public research university with over 38,000 students, is Ireland’s largest university.

Collaborations between Airfield Estate and UCD range from undergraduate professional work experience (9 months) to postgraduate masters and PhD projects.  The Estate also facilitates UCD conferences and summer school visits that focus on the practical application of sustainable food systems as well as consumer behaviour change. 

UCD students and supervisors work in partnership with the education and research department of Airfield Estate to create research projects from hypothesis to dissemination.  Critical to this is the facilitation of ethical approval for these projects through the University.  The participation of a high-level UCD academic on the Education and Research Committee at Airfield Estate is also important as it supports Airfield Estate positioning itself for academic grant applications and ensuring that the Estate engages in relevant research.

The success of the collaborative approach between UCD and Airfield Estate is based on offering academic staff and students a whole system understanding and approach to food systems, as well as access to and working with both food production experts and consumers.  The research conducted by students on the Estate is consumer-centered and intervention-driven, creating a testbed for programmes with potential to be scaled to national and international levels.  Airfield Estate has email and social media access to a large public cohort offering an invaluable reservoir for conducting surveys, creating focus groups, and accessing audiences for research dissemination events.  UCD provides academic supervision of all placements and projects, ensuring that they are ethically and rigorously conducted.

Lessons Learnt

1) The symbiosis of academic and non-academic education and research partners creates novel opportunities for education and research.

Having a non-academic partner with a focus on educating the public, advocating for sustainable food systems and a large database of customers, members, and followers on social media offers the academic partner a unique opportunity for education and research into consumer behaviour and consumers’ relationships with food. The facilities and proximity to the academic partner (3 km) allow for easy access for student placements and supervision, summer school educational visits, conference outings, and lectures. The provision of restaurant meals with food supplied by the farm and gardens demonstrates the practical application of a food systems approach.

UCD has been critical to the establishment of Airfield’s education and research department, contributing ethical review and approval for all research projects undertaken, the students to undertake the projects, and academic supervision. This ensures an ethical and rigorous process that protects vulnerable population groups is in place as well as facilitating the submission of high-quality research findings to national and international conferences and for peer-reviewed publication. The students and researchers from UCD working with Airfield Estate also provide an opportunity for the Estate to measure the impact of internally driven projects and programmes which is critical to future grant funding applications.

2) The non-academic partner must have a structure capable of planning and managing research. 

Airfield Estate’s strategy contains several pillars, one of which is ‘Powerful Research’.  As such, it has developed an Education and Research Committee with both external and internal stakeholders that meets quarterly and has created its own 5-year research strategy.  The Board, Trustees and Senior management of the Estate are all supportive of the research conducted at the Estate and a model of both internal research (supported by 9-month work placements by BSc human nutrition students and an in-house research officer) and international research (European Union Horizon projects) has developed.

3) Selection of topics for research must be relevant and robust for both parties.

So as not to waste time and limited resources, as a self-funded non-academic body, Airfield Estate needs to plan and strategically and critically evaluate research that is relevant to its remit and to its potential to submit successful future grant applications.  Hence, the decision-making process on what research projects are undertaken must be robust and meet the needs of both the non-academic and academic partners.  The research data and end user of the intervention must also be clearly identified in advance, utilize the expertise of academic staff and must fulfil students’ academic programme requirements. 

Other Relevant Examples

Food for Thought

  • How can a non-academic partner contact a university (and vice versa) to begin a conversation on collaborating? Is there a structure within your organization or university for this?
  • Memorandums of understanding are important to define the aims, relationships, and resources needed for the partnership.
  • Piloting small interventions through local non-academic partners brings research to life for the public, enriches the offering and grant potential of the organization, and provides a high-quality and engaging learning experience for students.

Contact Information:

Written in collaboration with Dr Kirstie McAdoo, former Director of Education and Research, Airfield Estate



The ICDA SFS Toolkit is made to be used & shared freely.
Please cite the authors of the resources you use
, and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you are able:
InternationalDietetics.org/Sustainability

Created 2024 September; updated 2025 May

Case Study: German Example on Integrating Sustainability in Dietetic Courses (2025)


At a Glance

  • This project developed a handbook with 60 hours of ready-to-use coursework on implementing the Planetary Health Diet and educational formats on transformative action and sustainability in training dietitians in Germany.
  • This project was funded by the German Federal Environmental Foundation (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt, DBU) and run by KLUG e.V. (German Association on Climate Change and Health), VDD e.V. (German Association of Dietitians), and the School of Dietitians at the University Hospital Münster.
  • Lessons Learnt: Topics of sustainable and healthy diets and transformative education can be implemented as a singular course or integrated throughout the training of dietitians.

Background:

Nutrition, health, and the environment are closely linked and mutually dependent. In Germany, common dietary patterns and the associated food production pose a significant risk to the health of the population and the climate and health of our planet. The Planetary Health Diet developed by EAT-Lancet provides crucial starting points for a healthy diet within planetary boundaries. 

However, the scientifically based, holistic concept is still insufficiently applied in the nutrition and health sectors and is missing in dietetic education curricula. The potential of such a diet, not only in the fight against planetary crises but also for improving population health, is still little known and is not used strategically.

The project aimed to develop educational formats on the Planetary Health Diet and transformative action for training professionals in the nutrition and healthcare sector. The model and implementation were tested in a dietetics class. 

After a successful trial of the model week on “Planetary Health and the Nutrition of the Future” with students from the School for Dietitians at the University Hospital Münster, the content was evaluated, revised, prepared and passed on to teachers at other dietitian schools in a train-the-trainer seminar with the purpose of scaling. 

All materials are available to all schools via the VDD member area or the project lead of KLUG e.V.. Based on these elaborated materials and the evaluation, the design and implementation of a multi-part training course for already working dietitians and nutritionists (across associations) follows. In addition, an adaptation of the materials to the training of physiotherapists and occupational therapists is in preparation. 

Implementation of the PHD in the teaching kitchen; own picture 

Other Relevant Examples

Food for Thought

  • Besides an increase in knowledge, students experienced an increase in drive, confidence, and assumption of responsibility towards fighting the climate crisis.

Contact Information:



The ICDA SFS Toolkit is made to be used & shared freely.
Please cite the authors of the resources you use
, and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you are able:
InternationalDietetics.org/Sustainability

Created 2024; updated 2025 May

Case Study: Addressing Food Waste at University College Dublin, Ireland (2025)


At a Glance


Background:

Food waste is a global issue that carries many environmental and economic implications. An estimated 25-33%, or 1.3 billion tonnes, of food is wasted globally (1). The UN SDG of halving food waste by 2030 requires large-scale action. Action in Ireland is guided by European directives to monitor and reduce food waste in line with the UN SDG goals (2).

Universities are settings with large populations and diverse expertise that could address food waste in meaningful and innovative ways. The student and staff population at UCD is over 30,000, with over 4000 beds provided for student residences on campus. There are several large restaurants, numerous cafes and delis, coffee docks, 2 grocery shops, and other small vendors across the campus. Novel food vans park up once per week and during events or festivals. There are 4 main providers of catering to events and conferences across the campus. In short, UCD is akin to a large, bustling town with a food system to match.

UCD Estate Services already has several supporting policies and programmes in place for sustainability. (3) UCD seeks the attainment of a sustainable, healthy and living campus and as such endeavours to manage the campus in a way that considers energy and water usage, waste management, sustainable commuting and biodiversity in all of its activities where relevant.

For students, there are opportunities to explore different aspects of the university food environment for the purpose of learning about food systems, waste, and what it all means for sustainability. To obtain a snapshot of the university campus, students focused on:

  • Food waste practices within a large university restaurant setting
  • Food waste knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours among students in residence on campus
  • Food waste within one staff building – the waste was collected, the students explored different methods of composting, and organised a living soil and composting workshop open to staff and students in collaboration with the community garden at the School of Veterinary Medicine.

Lessons Learnt:

  • A pilot exploratory project helped to build diverse relationships across campus including with restaurant management, Green Campus, the community garden, food waste and sustainability researchers and initiate conversations about this topic.
  • Small projects can attract interested staff and students and support the sustainability of actions with willing volunteers (e.g. continuing composting).
  • Accessing students to complete a survey was challenging and on-campus residence initiatives to engage students will require additional time and creativity.
  • The most wasted food group in a large university restaurant was starches, followed by vegetables. Plate waste, rather than kitchen waste, were the focus of the study, therefore server and consumer level engagement around portions sizes and waste awareness may be the appropriate focus for intervention.
  • The team in nutrition and dietetics at UCD collaborate with Airfield Farm Estate, where they demonstrate opportunities for full composting of food waste on-site, creating valuable compost and fertiliser for their garden and food growing.
  • The study is being developed further (in 2023/2024) to engage more with students’ knowledge and attitudes and repeat the restaurant methods to obtain a full academic year snapshot.

Other Relevant Examples

Food for Thought

  • Educators and Students seem the ideal role models for reducing food waste.
  • What systems need to be in place to avoid waste?
  • What supports do universities need to reduce food waste?

Contact Information

References:

1 – International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction 29 September

2 – Irish National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025 From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications Published on 30 November 2022, Last updated on 30 January 2023

3 – Summary of UCD Sustainability Activities via Estates



The ICDA SFS Toolkit is made to be used & shared freely.
Please cite the authors of the resources you use
, and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you are able:
InternationalDietetics.org/Sustainability

Created 2023; updated 2025 May

Case Study: Red-Listed Seafood (2025)


At a Glance

  • Madalyn Higgins, RD, the Dietitian and Sustainability Manager at Acadia Dining Services (provided by Chartwell’s Canada) worked with the students in NUTR 4913 Sustainable Food Systems and Dietary Patterns to address this target, providing them with a meaningful experiential learning opportunity. The students were all studying to become nutrition or health professionals, at least half of them intended on a career in dietetics.
  • The efforts of the students focused on three areas:
    • 1 – Understanding and communicating key messages about sustainable seafood.  Students put together a comprehensive review of existing research surrounding the topic and created communications tools to be displayed in the dining hall to inform staff and students about the negative effects of Red-Listed seafood and what steps they can take to minimize these effects.
    • 2 – Identifying Red-Listed seafood on the menu. Students investigated seafood sources to determine if they are on the Red List. This meant speaking with food system actors such as distributors and fisheries and comparing information to Ocean Wise resources.
    • 3 – Exploring strategies for more sustainable menu alternatives. Students proposed potential replacements using comparable items and looked for distributors.
  • The students presented their work to the dining hall’s Chef, Dietitian and Sustainability Manager, Director of Operations and Marketing Manager.
  • These efforts aimed to promote environmentally responsible dining practices at Acadia University while raising awareness about the importance of sustainable seafood sourcing.

Background:

Buying seafood that is Red-Listed has been recognized worldwide as a significant problem, as it is linked to major concerns for our fisheries and the health of the planet such as low fish stock numbers, destabilization of the ecosystem-wide food chain, and Irresponsible fishing practices that contribute to the destruction of our oceans.

With the growing population and growing appetite for fish and seafood in developed nations, billions of people around the world rely on fish and seafood as an essential source of protein and a means of income. Researchers have gathered that this seafood should not be made commercially available and alternative options need to be considered.

Organizations such as Seafood Watch, categorize red-listed seafood through different ranking systems tailored for various types of fishing such as fisheries and aquaculture, and score them based on their sustainability criteria.

The sum of the scores allow the seafood to fall into Green (good choice), Yellow (good alternative), or Red (avoid) categories. Other organizations such as Ocean-Wise and Aquaculture Stewardship Council also assess sustainability based on Seafood Watch’s sustainability scoring system  and convert the scores from three-fold to a binary system of Green and Red.

Lessons Learnt:

  • Through research, students gathered that the problem is that there is a lot of complexity and lack of transparency surrounding the global seafood supply chain and what seafood is sustainable to eat.
  • There is a need to improve transparency regarding sustainable seafood and ability to access this information. The group learned about the importance of understanding these tools to identify relevant information about sustainable seafood options.
  • It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure sustainable seafood consumption. Policies should be put in place to regulate how seafood is being labeled sustainable.
  • While not easy, it is possible to identify unsustainable seafood sources and replace them with more sustainable sources.
  • Sustainably sourced seafood, such as recirculating aquaculture is not perfect but can create seafood options. These options can be much more expensive, and we rely on food and nutrition professionals to get creative in the kitchen to use them more sparingly.
  • The seafood that the students helped remove included the red-listed atlantic salmon and white shrimp that was being served in the Acadia dining hall.  Students gathered sustainable options to be presented as recommendations to replace these red-listed menu items. The better choices included the Ocean Wise-approved farmed Whiteleg shrimp and the Ocean Wise-approved farmed Giant Tiger shrimp. 

Other Relevant Examples

  • Nourish Canada has developed a Sustainable Menu Guide that can guide menus for organizations such as University campuses. The menu guide simplifies efforts o create sustainable menus that reduce environmental impact while offering healthy, affordable, acceptable, and fair food to clients.  While not specific to sustainable seafood, it is more broadly helpful with practical examples.

Food for Thought

  • How do we ensure that we have aquatic resources for the future, especially with the growing demand?
  • What kind of tools are effective or needed to empower and educate consumers to make sustainable choices?
  • What supports do food service providers need to serve sustainable seafood choices?

Contact Information



Thank you to Naomi Kereliuk for facilitating this case study!

The ICDA SFS Toolkit is made to be used & shared freely.
Please cite the authors of the resources you use
, and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you are able:
InternationalDietetics.org/Sustainability

Created 2023; updated page 2025 May

Case Studies: SFS Education in Nutrition & Dietetics Degrees Globally (2025)


At a Glance

  • We are an international group of collaborating dietetic educators who share our stories about integrating sustainable food systems into nutrition and dietetic curriculum.
  • Dietetic educators are being called to prepare future dietitians and nutritionists to contribute to Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) transformation.
  • Dietetic educators integrating SFS education into the curriculum have shared examples. There is an online platform for sharing examples that serves as a series of mini case studies.

History

In preparation for a workshop at the World Public Health Nutrition Congress 2020, subsequently postponed due to COVID-19, an international group of collaborating dietetic educator shared their stories about integrating sustainable food systems into nutrition and dietetic curriculum. In lieu of a face-to-face workshop at the Congress, facilitators have created the online platform.

This content was put together to showcase effective mechanisms and innovative approaches through international case studies which aim to improve food system competency among students and describe how this may translate into improved outcomes.

In the link you will see that each workshop facilitator has a profile, inclusive of an explanation (video or otherwise) of their showcased teaching and learning activity as described above.

Food for Thought

  • If you are an educator training future nutrition and dietetic professionals, are you already including sustainable food systems content in the courses that you teach? — If yes, how and what? If not, why not?
  • Do any of the examples included provoke new ideas for you? — Could they be adapted to your setting?
  • Is/should this topic be integrated into the core content of your program, or is/should this an elective/optional topic?

Contact Information

  • We welcome you to join us! Please contact liza.barbour@monash.edu (in Australia) if you would like to be added to the platform or if you have questions.
  • If you have questions for any of the educators, their contact information is included in the web platform. Please contact them directly.


The ICDA SFS Toolkit is made to be used & shared freely.
Please cite the authors of the resources you use
, and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you are able:
InternationalDietetics.org/Sustainability

Created 2020; updated 2025 May

Case Study: SPP, Small Producers (2025)


At a Glance:

  • SPP is both an intercontinental network and a label belonging to small organic fair trade producers organizations from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, with its own independent certification system.
  • It is the only 100% producer-driven collective for fairly traded and ecologically sustainable food products.
  • This unique structure ensures that prices are based on the real cost of sustainable production, protecting producers from exploitation.
  • 100% production is conducted via organic and agroecological farming methods, as we require SPP certification from producers and by having our own agroecological Environmental Standard; we do not have non-organic fair trade products.
  • SPP integrates both social and ecological criteria in a single certification system, offering a truly holistic approach to sustainability.

Fair Trade Certifications

In a world where food supply chains increasingly span the globe, sourcing foods closer to where they are consumed is an effective strategy for improving traceability, understanding, and sustainability. Designing menus around seasonal produce and prioritizing local procurement can strengthen local economies, enhance food security through support for regional production capacity, and promote greater transparency and accountability in production practices.

However, some foods—such as coffee, cacao, sugar, and various tropical fruits and vegetables—can only be grown in specific ecological regions and must be obtained through international trade, particularly by temperate countries. In these cases, third-party certifications that establish standards for production and trade relationships offer a valuable mechanism for evaluating and improving the environmental and social impacts of products that travel long distances and involve actors who may never meet directly.

A range of fair trade certifications exists (see Other Relevant Examples below), and it is crucial to understand their strengths and limitations, especially regarding their standards, accountability mechanisms, and the degree of producer participation they allow.

Small Producer Symbol

The Small Producer Symbol (SPP) was launched in 2006. It is the only 100% producer-driven collective that provides independent certification for fairly traded and SPP (previously called Small Producer’s Symbol) was launched in 2006. It is the only 100% producer-driven collective that provides independent certification for fairly traded and ecological products.

SPP is the culmination of the evolution of various small producer networks and movements starting in the 1960s. It was created in response to the challenges and continuing inequities faced by small producers working to meet consumer-driven fair trade certifications. Without equal representation from and decision-making power in the hands of producers, consumer-driven fair trade certifications may fail to represent producer perspectives, consider producer-specific challenges, and cover the real costs of production.

SPP consists of 132 small producers’ organizations representing around 84 thousand families across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. Products from 29 countries are certified by SPP and sold in about 50 consumer countries. SPP represents a simple but powerful shift in the mechanics of fair trade by centering producer voices and concerns in the process of determining what ‘fair’ prices and criteria are, while offering consumers traceability of products and transparency on production techniques and organizational structures.

As a producer-driven initiative, the SPP independent certification represents:

  1. Solidarity between organized small producers, committed companies, and consumers
  2. High quality organic, agroecological, and healthy products
  3. Prices based on the real cost of production and are free of exploitation
  4. Complete supply chain traceability
  5. Living income for producers

“SPP has been created and is controlled by the producers themselves, without intermediaries, which generates greater closeness between consumer and producer thanks to transparency, allowing them all to transform the world together through fair trade. That’s why we say SPP is the Empowering Label.”

Other Relevant Examples

Food for Thought

  • What aspects of social sustainability feel most relevant to your work?
  • What role can certifications play in helping your organization or community set and meet social sustainability targets?
  • How important does it feel to have producer voices equitably represented in determining certification criteria and standards?

Contact Information



The ICDA SFS Toolkit is made to be used & shared freely.
Please cite the authors of the resources you use
, and the ICDA SFS Toolkit if you are able:
InternationalDietetics.org/Sustainability

Created 2020; updated May 2025