Redistribution through urban food hubs: A comprehensive sustainability assessment

Abstract

Urban food hubs are a novel operational model for surplus food redistribution, and an increasingly implemented policy instrument to mitigate synergically food waste and food insecurity. However, there is still need to assess comprehensively their sustainability impacts across the environmental, social and economic dimensions. This study focuses on Milan, a frontrunner city in the implementation of innovative food policies, where urban food hubs aim to generate positive impacts in food waste reduction and food insecurity mitigation through a neighborhood-based and quick redistribution model. Methodologically, the study performs a comprehensive, multi-dimensional (environmental, social and economic) sustainability evaluation using life cycle assessment, net economic benefit calculation and social sustainability indicators evaluation. Results show that one food hub offers annual net savings of 107 t of CO₂ equivalent and generates substantial environmental benefits across different environmental dimensions. Robustness checks and sensitivity analyses are carried out considering different degrees of displacement impacting the level of substitution of redistributed products. Regarding the social dimension, one food hub recovers every year approximately 140,000 meals for 3000 beneficiaries, and successfully integrates fresh food (fruit, vegetables, fresh proteins) as key nutritional components. At the same time, the economic value of recovered food is 12.21 times the costs sustained to recover and redistribute it. The results also unpack the environmental impact of each phase of the process, from avoided production until redistribution. These results quantify and provide a framework to assess the environmental, economic and social sustainability of food hubs as an urban food policy instrument.