Sustainable nutrition

Blonk supported WWF Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) with diet modelling techniques and environmental data to develop win-win eating patterns. Sustainable diets that meet national nutritional requirements and reduce environmental footprints of diets for adults in Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary in 2030, while respecting cultural dietary habits. 

Following the approach of the 2016 study WWF-UK commissioned Blonk in 2021-2022 again to model the Livewell diet and investigate how diet shift can enable a nature positive net-zero transition in the UK. The findings show that with a dietary change it is possible not to exceed the planetary boundary for GHG emission, whilst meeting the nutritional needs, being cultural acceptable and without increasing the price of the diet

WWF launched the European Eat4Change project to make young Europeans aware of ways to develop and adopt a healthier and more sustainable diet. Our current food system has a substantial environmental impact. With Eat4Change, WWF wants to make food production more sustainable, combat biodiversity loss and tackle the climate crisis. As part of this European project, on behalf of WWF Belgium, we analyzed which products fit into a sustainable and healthy diet for a family of four. We did so using our Optimeal software tool. The results also show that a sustainable and healthy diet is cheaper than the average Belgian's current dietary pattern.

The main challenge for companies producing foods and beverages is to become 'future-proof' regarding health, environmental, and other sustainability concerns. Future-proof foods and beverages properly balance their nutritional value and environmental impact. This concept is called the Sustainability Nutrition Balance (SNB), which identifies whether a product or product group fits into a healthy and sustainable diet. The SNB-score can be determined in several steps, offering directions toward developing products that meet nutritional and sustainability requirements. Blonk Consultants developed the Optimeal optimization tool to grasp the complete picture of and study healthy and sustainable diets and assign SNB-scores to products or product portfolios.

Recently, the EAT-Lancet commission published a report on healthy and sustainable diets. In our studies we arrive at roughly the same conclusion. However, our research method was different, and actually more precise, with fewer limitations.

In 2011 WWF UK published the first 'Livewell plate'. This was very successful in putting the topic of sustainable diets on the agenda of governments, food companies and health organisations, as well as demonstrating that it was possible to incorporate sustainability in dietary recommendations. Building on this success and the 'Paris Agreement' WWF UK decided to update the Livewell Plates. The new Livewell Plates demonstrate that by adopting a sustainable diet it is possible to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees.