In the supermarket, it's tough to see which fruits and vegetables have traveled the farthest; 'Meet the Food You Eat' is an interactive installation that will help clear up confusion about the environmental impact of the foods we like to eat.
'Meet the Food You Eat' is a project by three students at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, Adam Little, Siddharth Muthyala and Eilidh Dickson. It's a physical representation of the CO2 emissions that result from the transportation of food in a scale-like form.
Visitors to the installation select a product and place it on the scale. They then select tree-shaped weights to try to balance the scale out. The number of weights corresponds with the amount of actual trees needed to offset that particular product's CO2 emissions over the course of one year.
Carbon Footprint Comparisons
'Meet the Food You Eat' Installation Examines Impact of Popular Eats
Trend Themes
1. Food Transportation Footprint - An opportunity to develop sustainable transportation solutions to reduce the carbon footprint in the food industry.
2. Interactive Environmental Education - There is an opportunity to develop more interactive installations and educational tools that help consumers understand the environmental impact of products.
3. Sustainable Consumer Habits - The installation highlights an opportunity to encourage and cultivate sustainable consumer habits, leading to a shift towards eco-conscious purchasing behaviors.
Industry Implications
1. Food and Beverage - The food industry has an opportunity to develop more sustainable means of transportation to reduce carbon emissions.
2. Environmental Education - There is an opportunity for innovations in the educational sector to create more interactive tools to help consumers learn about the environmental impact and carbon footprint of products.
3. Retail - Retailers have an opportunity to encourage sustainable consumer habits by providing information about products' carbon footprints and encouraging eco-conscious purchasing behaviors.