Monday, November 10, 2025

Study shows people have misconceptions about the environmental impact of everyday food

University of Nottingham

A new study has given new insights into people’s understanding of the environmental impact of the food they eat and shown that they often misperceive it, supporting the need for environmental impact labelling.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham’s School of Psychology conducted a food categorisation task in which 168 UK participants organised a diverse range of supermarket food products into environmental impact categories that they created and labelled themselves. The results showed there are a number of misconceptions around the environmental impact of food. The results have been published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

Food systems are a major contributor to environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. To promote dietary shifts among the public it is crucial to understand how people perceive the environmental impact of food products.

The environmental impact of food is calculated through a life cycle assessment, which evaluates the entire "cradle-to-grave" process from raw material extraction to disposal. It involves collecting data on a product's inputs (like fertilizer, water, and energy) and outputs (like emissions and waste), then assessing impacts across multiple categories such as greenhouse gas emissions (often as CO2 equivalents), land use, and water use.

Prior investigations into this topic have covered only a narrow range of product types. This study, which was funded by the UKRI’s Smart Data Research UK, is the first to examine perceptions of a wide range of food products that might be purchased during a typical food shop.

The participants in this study were shown product-level scientific impact estimates and reported whether they were surprised by how high or low each impact was.

The researchers found that people conceptualise the environmental impact of food along two underlying dimensions: animal versus plant origin and level of processing, with meat/dairy and more highly processed products perceived as worse for the environment. People also often overestimate the environmental impact of highly processed foods and underestimate the impact of water-intensive products (e.g. nuts). People were also surprised by how much higher the impact of beef is compared to other types of meat, such as chicken.

Daniel Fletcher, Postdoctoral researcher from the School of Psychology is lead author on the study, he said: “We designed an online task to engage people with the topic and provide an interactive and visual way of investigating their understanding of the environmental impact of food. We found participants would be willing to change their purchasing behaviour based on this task, reporting intentions to decrease (or increase) their future consumption of products for which they were surprised by how high (or low) the scientifically estimated environmental impact was.

“Our findings also suggest people may struggle to compare the environmental impact of animal-based products and highly processed foods because they see their effects as too different to weigh against each other. Environmental impact labels that give foods a single overall grade (such as A–E) could help make these comparisons easier for consumers.”

Professor Alexa Spence from the School of Psychology was co-author on the study and said: “The environmental impact data on food products is opening up new avenues for this research and this is the first study to look at this against a wide range of everyday products and examine what people’s perceptions of these are. What was clear from the study is that there are a lot of misconceptions around this which really supports the need for environmental impact labelling which would help people to be more informed to make sustainable food choices.”

Journal

Journal of Cleaner Production

DOI

10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.146938

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Dimensions underlying public perceptions and misperceptions of food's environmental impact

Article Publication Date

10-Nov-2025

Cities around the world must plan more explicitly to reach UN goals on inclusivity, safety, resilience, and sustainability, new research reveals

New report sheds light on how UN SDG11 is shaping urban planning systems across the globe

University of Liverpool

UN SDG 11 and Global Planning report — image:
The `UN SDG 11 and the Global Planning Agenda’ report front cover
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Credit: University of Liverpool and Arup

The global planning community must move “from awareness to action” if the UN’s goal of sustainable and inclusive urban development is to be achieved by 2030, authors of a new report have warned.

The report, from the University of Liverpool's Department of Geography & Planning and built environment consultancy Arup, found widespread awareness among the global planning community of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11). But it shows development is uneven and more consistent action is needed.

`UN SDG 11 and the Global Planning Agenda’ - draws on a global literature review, survey data from Arup’s international planning network, interviews with planning professionals and institutes in 15 countries, and a panel discussion with the presidents of three planning institutes held at the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) Planning Conference, 2025.

It was jointly authored by researchers from the University of Liverpool’s Department of Geography & Planning and Arup.

The full report is available to download here: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/geography-and-planning/research/un-sdg11/about-the-report/

Key messages:

The influence of SDG 11 on planning systems and practices is often implicit.
However, cases of explicit application, and linking of the SDGs to spatial development and planning systems do exist, with developing countries more reliant on the SDGs to inform their planning policies.
Capacity for data collection and monitoring is strong in many places but does not always translate into application on the ground.
Engagement with the SDGs is driven by different motivations including concerns with image and reputation.
Application can reflect a combination of top down and domestic bottom up and horizontal approaches.

Why this is important for planners:

The report concludes by summarising why these findings are important for planners.

Planners and planning systems play a crucial role in achieving global sustainability goals and understanding these contributions can enhance planning effectiveness. Planners need to be given sufficient support and capacity to effectively implement global objectives and deliver sustainable planning on the ground.
Highlighting how planning is helping to deliver positive change against global sustainability goals is particularly important and underlines its relevance and legitimacy.
Whether it is being applied explicitly or implicitly, the global planning agenda is important as it provides planners with a framework and a narrative for global best practice sharing.
Embedding the language of SDG 11 into planning systems provides an opportunity to resonate with younger generations and potentially attract them to the profession.
Adopting an application perspective will help planners explore the performance of the ideas and policy goals articulated by the global agenda, as well as collecting indicators which seek to measure conformance with this agenda.

Dr Olivier Sykes, Senior Lecturer in European Spatial Planning at the University of Liverpool and co-author of the report, said: “UN SDG 11 should be shaping planning cultures worldwide, but our research shows it’s doing so largely through implicit influence. If we’re serious about achieving inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities by 2030, we must translate global awareness into local action. That means embedding the SDGs in education, policy frameworks, and everyday professional practice. Partnerships between universities and practitioners are key to gauging progress and addressing the gaps between aspiration and implementation.”

Jane Healey Brown, Director at Arup Manchester and co-author of the report, said: “Our research has shown that UN SDG 11 provides planners with a valuable framework and a narrative for global best practice sharing. Explicit application is particularly important because it can provide a measurement, and politicians and society are increasingly looking for measurability. This helps demonstrate how planning is delivering positive change. Planners would benefit from a stronger toolkit which provides practical examples of how to integrate the goals and empowers them to deliver. Arup are proud to be working with the University of Liverpool and also the RTPI on this agenda, including a review of the RTPI’s CPD module on sustainable planning.”

UN SDGs

The UN SDGs are 17 global goals adopted by all United Nations member states in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all by 2030.

ENDS

About the University of Liverpool

Founded in 1881 as the original ‘red brick’, the University of Liverpool is one of the UK’s leading research-intensive higher education institutions with an annual turnover of £675.1 million, including an annual research income of £160.6 million.

Now ranked in the top 150 universities worldwide (QS World Rankings 2026 and Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026), we are a member of the prestigious Russell Group of the UK’s leading research universities and have a global reach and influence that reflects our academic heritage as one of the country’s largest civic institutions.

The latest UK rankings have placed the University of Liverpool at 23rd (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025), 27th (2025 Guardian University Guide), 25th (Daily Mail University Guide 2025) and 23rd (2026 Complete University Guide) nationally.

About Arup

Arup is a global built environment consultancy providing advisory and technical expertise for our clients across a wide range of disciplines. We create safe, resilient, and regenerative places. arup.com

Carbon footprint of conference travel

ISTA scientists examine the sustainability of travel to international NMR meetings

Institute of Science and Technology Austria

Presentation: Train vs. Plane — image:
Climate Footprint of Conference Travel: Train vs. Plane. ISTA PhD graduate Natália Ružičková presents data at an ISTA Special Institute Colloquium in April 2024.
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Credit: © Natália Ružičková | ISTA

International meetings offer researchers worldwide the chance to explore the cutting edge of science, generate new ideas, and strike up collaborations. Having a wide geographical distribution of attendees is often regarded as a mark of success. However, researchers at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) are now calling this into question by seeking to quantify the environmental impact of international conference travel. Their results, published in the journal Magnetic Resonance, could help researchers make informed decisions and adopt more climate-conscious mindsets.

Every effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions can help us combat the rampant effects of global warming. While research on sustainability practices is making progress in various aspects of our lives, academic research itself has a considerable environmental footprint that must not be overlooked. In its commitment to sustainable research, the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) actively raises awareness of this topic and seeks effective strategies to mitigate the climate impact of research.

As data is often missing, ISTA Sustainability Manager Jeroen Dobbelaere and professors Paul Schanda and Georgios Katsaros sought to tackle this issue head-on in 2023. They developed a course to quantify the footprint of research practices as part of the ISTA Graduate School curriculum. “Together with the registered students, we sought to tackle one topic a year,” says Dobbelaere. “We designed the course with a focus on mentoring and project-based data analysis culminating with a presentation to the campus community.”

Their results on the carbon footprint of conference travel in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) have now been published in the journal Magnetic Resonance, an interactive open-access publication of the Groupement AMPERE.

Rising post-pandemic emissions

Multiple academic research activities have a high impact on the climate. These include the production of chemicals and other research consumables as well as the construction and maintenance of research buildings, facilities, and equipment. However, other factors such as commuting to work and conference travel weigh in the balance. One of these factors, the carbon footprint of travel in academia, is of particular interest as it has again started rising considerably after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

“In-person meetings have a quality that online conferences simply cannot provide,” says Schanda. “Many of us had brilliant ideas—or thought so at the time—while having a drink with a colleague after a poster session.” Such unique opportunities can hardly be offered in an online setting. Thus, although online-only conferences have a considerably lower carbon footprint, they do not provide scientists with a comparable experience to in-person meetings.

Accounting for the ‘hidden’ carbon costs

When the course was first offered during the 2023-24 academic year, the team examined the environmental impact of conference travel in the case of NMR. “Considering the substantial carbon footprint of airplane travel, we asked if train travel was an alternative,” says Dobbelaere. According to ISTA PhD graduate Natália Ružičková, one of the course participants and study authors, it is “common knowledge” that trains are less polluting than airplanes. “But there is a ‘but’: these calculations do not include the cost of infrastructure. While a plane only needs two airports, running a train requires tracks, tunnels, and bridges connecting the origin and the destination. And building and maintaining these tracks costs CO2,” she says.

To tackle this issue methodically and account for the ‘hidden’ carbon costs, the course participants made a detailed model that also includes the indirect effects from laying tracks and building train stations. By estimating the ‘real’ CO2 footprint of travel to various European cities from Vienna, the team still confirmed that train travel had a substantially more planet-friendly impact than flights. “We found that while the infrastructure emissions associated with a train journey are around three times as high as the CO2 footprint of actually running the train—meaning the emissions shown by travel apps—, traveling by train still saves on average 85% of CO2 as compared to the same journey by flight,” explains Ružičková. However, this effect was less clear for long trips exceeding 3,000 kilometers.

More CO2 than half a year’s worth of research

Next, the scientists took a closer look at the travel emissions from ten international NMR conferences over the past decade. The researchers showed that traveling to an overseas conference generates a substantial carbon footprint of four to five tons per participant. This is the case, for example, for traveling from Europe to ENC-ISMAR in California. “We compared this data to emissions directly related to research activities in NMR at our institute. It turns out that traveling from Europe to one such overseas conference has a higher carbon footprint than half a year of making samples, running experiments, and scientific computing in NMR at ISTA, combined, per person,” says Schanda. While Austria has a 17% share of fossil fuels, research-related emissions are higher in countries with a more fossil-heavy energy mix, such as Germany, which has more than double Austria’s share.

Climate-conscious conference attendance

By examining additional scenarios, the team made another important finding regarding conference locations. They explored the possibility of decentralized conferences within Europe—that is, meetings held simultaneously at multiple locations and connected virtually. “Such decentralized conferences offer attendees the chance to travel to the conference location closer to their home institution, resulting in carbon savings of up to 25%,” says Dobbelaere.

While the study considered the example of NMR, the authors hope that their results will help researchers make informed, climate-conscious decisions about conference travel in various fields. Next, Dobbelaere, Schanda, and Katsaros will continue their efforts by tackling new topics in their course. “Last year, we addressed the carbon footprint of commuting. In the present academic year, we have started exploring the environmental impact of scientific computing,” says Dobbelaere.

CO2 saved by taking the train. Data collected by course participants Natália Ružičková, Valentin Leitner, and Cecelia Mweka, presented at an ISTA Special Institute Colloquium in April 2024.

Credit