Circular Food Innovation Lab
- Sheyda Rashidi
- Mar 13, 2023
- 7 min read
What is Circular Food Innovation Lab?
The Circular Food Innovation Lab (CFIL) was a project of the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC), Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and Vancouver-based businesses and organizations working in the food system. This project was a collaboration and co-creation with Vancouver's food businesses to find ways of intervention in Vancouver's food system that would enable a circular future. CFIL used systemic design, action research, and prototyping to experiment at possible solutions in f. It aimed to transform Vancouver's food system not only to reduce waste and enable circularity but also to shift the underlying mindsets leading to unsustainable processes in the system.
For more information about the details of this project please visit CFIL's blog or CFIL's Medium
Our convening question
How might we work together to increase circularity in Vancouver's food system so that food is not lost or wasted; access to food is nourishing, equitable, and culturally appropriate; and habitats are protected for current and future generations of humans and more-than-humans?
My contributions
As a designer and researcher, I had several responsibilities in the course of this one-year project. They include:
Co-developing design processes, tools, and techniques
Conducting in-field learning, co-design, and rapid prototyping
Co-leading generative and evaluative gatherings
Documenting and communicating learnings and outcomes
Prototype
Leading the Measure What Matters Prototype
Collaborating with team members on a Co-creating Collaborative Responsibilities prototype
Collaborating with team members on Last Call (Tracing Foodsteps experiment) Prototype
Design deliverables
Design experiments such as design probes
Participant documentation tools
Survey designs
Workshop designs and facilitation
CFIL's Webdesign
Visual communication support
Our ‘north star’
The North Star is the larger vision that we are working towards. We envision a food system in Vancouver where:
Food isn’t wasted -circular systems are in place so foods easily flow to their next use.
Access to healthy, gorgeous, and delicious food is affordable, just, and culturally appropriate for all residents in Vancouver.
Jobs support a multitude of livelihoods in a regenerative economy.
Food is not reduced to a commodity but rather respected as an integral part of human and planetary well-being.
Our food system is rooted in place and reflects care for local, regional and global ecosystems.
Food is centered in family, community, and cultural lives. It grounds important moments and movements.
Our food system moves beyond human exceptionalism and recognizes that we are part of a complex balance held between all beings.
I joined this project as a designer and researcher in Spring 2022. As one of the significant opportunities in my career, this project advanced my training in systemic-thinking and social innovation through several systemic design principles, tools, and techniques. Co-creation and collaboration were the foundations of this project and participating in it helped me strengthen my collaboration skills and taught me various ways of effective communication by working on different tasks with different people with diverse perspectives and cultures.
After team orientation, we started the project with a Kick-off session to meet the business participants and use a few systemic design tools to generate ideas and collect their reflections. One of my colleagues and I facilitated a small section of this workshop session using Iceberg and Feedback loops tools, created by the City of Vancouver Solutions Lab our project supervisor.
Iceberg Tool
You can find this template along with complete instructions of the tool here at Solutions Lab webpage.
Feedback Loop Tool
You can find this template along with complete instructions of the tool here at Solutions Lab webpage.
Action Research
During the action research phase, we needed to get our hands dirty and immerse ourselves in the day-to-day realities of the food system so that we could truly understand the challenges facing Vancouver's food system. Thus, we visited restaurants, grocery stores, and other food organizations and businesses across Vancouver. We had the opportunity to meet with a range of stakeholders and hear their stories. We learned about the struggles of frontline staff, managers, and other professionals across the food system. But our learning didn't stop there. We also had the chance to participate in workshops and design thinking sessions with our partners and stakeholders. Through these collaborative experiences, we were able to build the foundation we needed, grounded in real-world insights, to move forward and develop innovative circular solutions that can create lasting change in the food system.
Overall, the action research phase was a critical part of the Circular Food Innovation Lab's journey. It allowed us to develop a deep understanding of Vancouver's food system's challenges and engage with stakeholders in meaningful ways through tools and prompting questions to help with reflection. I co-created the following workbook with my colleagues to access the tools and collect appropriate information during our site visits.
Design sprint
After synthesizing our action research learnings, we started our concept development journey. We generated ideas in response to eight dysfunctional feedback loops we identified in multiple food businesses through generating how might we questions, storyboarding, and other ideation techniques. The outcome was 8 concept packages; then, the businesses signed up for as many as they wanted to test in their location during the rapid prototyping phase.
The prototype concepts include
PEER TO PEER NETWORK
Pain point: There is bountiful knowledge on waste reduction but sharing of/access to knowledge is sparse and not facilitated
Stuck mindset: “It’s beyond my capacity to work outside of the dominant system”
Positive note: Food businesses are discovering and supporting countless food waste strategies and initiatives… they are eager to share!
Creative question: How might we create an online space that encourages and simplifies connection between all kinds of food players so that knowledge can be shared and action against food waste can be tackled as a community?
STAFF ENGAGEMENT
Pain point: Employers - Labour shortages, quick turnover and unengaged staff
Paint point: Employee - “If I give an idea it means more work for me, and no extra money”
Goal: Engage staff and owners to shift to more circular practices. Maybe through Non-hierarchical, Non-competitive incentives.
Creative question: How might we enable staff to be a part of growing circularity in the workplace so that livelihoods are supported while shifting to a circular food system?
LAST CALL
Pain point: Obtaining access to space for food rescuers is challenging
Stuck mindset: “Damaged or ripened food is no longer edible or sellable”
Positive note: Consumers respond positively to initiatives taken by their local food businesses. They are willing to participate in the change.
Creative question: How might we re-purpose food at the end of day in stores so that we create a market that:
reaches different customers
celebrates cultural diversity
stimulates community connection
CO-CREATING COLLABORATIVE RESPONSIBILITY
Pain point: Businesses feel a lack of support and feel left alone in creating solutions around managing food waste; meanwhile, managing food waste is not incentivized, expected, or required.
Pattern: Government, businesses and industry associations are placing responsibility and accountability to find solutions to food waste on one another, wherein working towards shared goals is sparse or scattered.
Goal: Foster the co-creation of regulatory standards that can be applied to industry across the board to level the playing field for different businesses.
Creative question: How might we co-imagine and co-create policy and/or regulatory interventions to grow a sense of shared responsibility and accountability between businesses, industry associations, and government partners so that we can enact goals around preventing food waste and directing food where it is most needed?
Pain point: Food is wasted for all kinds of reasons, and everyone loses (money, food security, greenhouse gas emissions…).
Stuck mindset: We don’t care enough about wasted food to measure it and understand the magnitude of the problem.
Goal: Collectively commit to measuring what matters and understanding the magnitude of the problem so that we can make better decisions.
Creative question: How might we utilize existing measurement frameworks and platforms for measuring wasted food so that we can share this information with each other, collectively share efforts and responsibilities, and make more impactful decisions in the sector-wide reduction of wasted food?
REFRAME
Pain point: Consumers have a standard of food they expect in the store ; Grocers rely on a reputation of freshness
Stuck mindset: Challenging the notion that good looking food is healthier, better – food as a gift, not a commodity.
Goal: To incentivize “seconds” food purchases as a positive choice
Creative question: How might we reframe the value of all foods through transparency to consumers regarding the journey of food, how much energy went into its production, and how important it is to treat it all the same?
CIRCULAR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Pain point: Infrastructure and resources for circular food entrepreneurs are hard to access and afford, and these individuals are running largely on passion
Insight: Circularity is happening successfully in small niches in Vancouver
Goal: To support new and existing entrepreneurs in the circular food economy
Creative question: How might we create new, support and/or scale existing enterprises or opportunities from wasted or latent assets and resources within the food system so that we can foster a culture of circular and equitable entrepreneurship in Vancouver?
LEARNING JOURNEY
Pain point: Most of our work has taken place online, and it’s difficult to feel connected to the lab question and each other
Observation: Many people joined this lab to share and learn about promising practices
Positive note: There is some excitement about field trips based on other concepts being tested
Creative question: How might we leverage field trips and outings to learn about our food system and circularity in our region so that the lab experience centers business participants as learners and co-creators of solutions and we find new sources of inspiration to shape future choices and practices?
Creative Commons License
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