Beyond an individual’s responsibility : co-creative loop for behavioral change regarding food waste management in Swedish households

Sammanfattning: Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study food consumption and food waste-related behavior in Swedish households and propose ideas that could be further developed intosustainable initiatives helping to reduce food waste and create efficient food wastemanagement. Design/Methodology/Approach: This study has been designed as an explanatory case studywhere a holistic view of the studied phenomenon is presented. Therefore, a flexiblemethodology based on the combination of constructionism and interpretivism has beenfollowed; using an inductive approach, mixed qualitative-quantitative strategy, and innovativemethods of data collection and data analysis. Findings: The key empirical finding regarding studied phenomena was identifying a gapbetween household awareness regarding sustainable everyday lifestyle and existing food wastemanagement system. Moreover, this study has brought a deeper understanding that joint workof society, business, science, and the government is needed to create synergic food wastemanagement at the household level. Research limitations: The critical situation caused by Covid-19 has limited this research.Because of that, all team working processes, the subject matter expert interviews, selfcompletion questionnaire, and focus group have been conducted online, which may have animpact on the results. Practical implications: The practical value of this study includes two directions regarding foodwaste reduction and food waste management. The first part of initiatives aims to increasehousehold sustainable awareness and knowledge; the second part intends to develop andimplement innovative facilitates and tools at the household level. Social implications: This study shows a significant potential to increase the interest of societyin sustainable food consumption and food waste-related behavior. Sustainable initiatives thatare offered in this study, reflect sustainable development goals and can change people's way ofthinking in terms of being a part of the sustainable planet. Originality: The proposed co-creative loop, as a set of sustainable initiatives with collaborationbetween all stakeholders, helps to bridge the gap between household awareness and food wastemanagement and allows developing ideas in different conditions at different levels in terms ofinnovative value