A Critical Systems Thinking Methodology to Explore Circularity of Food Waste in a University Campus

This paper reports on the learning process and main insights of applying a critical system thinking (CST) methodology to food waste prevention, at a UK university campus project. Across the globe, many universities are considering or adopting circular economy (CE) principles to meet the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). Yet, there is still lack of understanding about systemic issues and consequences of preventing food waste, towards improved management of campus food resources. Our case study approach combined Soft Operational Research (Soft OR) and other methods to identify possibilities and challenges regarding adopting CE ideas and technologies. These processes featured initial food waste scrap separation and sorting, conversations with students and managers, student self-assessment of waste disposal, collating diverse perspectives and investigating on-site food composting or anaerobic digestion (AD) options. There were valuable project lessons from this tactile, practical approach. However, campus stakeholders following through with their own action agendas (while we maintained a critical, supporting role) came across as paramount. Among other insights from using Soft OR, our study presents this finding about the importance of flexibility and ‘slowing down’ in seeking to progress the 12th UN sustainable development goal (UNSDG) to reduce food waste.