Oslo’s Urban Food Action Plan

The FUSILLI Project has developed 70 Innovation Actions to transform the food system in the cities. These actions based on the different stages in the food system: governance, production, distribution, consumption, and waste, are implement through Living Lab activities during the project period. This Urban Food Action Plan gives an overview of the city as a Living Lab, the challenges they face and the plan of action that they pursuit.

Read Oslo’s Urban Food Action Plan in brief below

Oslo is the capital of Norway and the country’s largest city with just over 700,000 inhabitants. Since 2015, Oslo has a City Government cooperation between the Labour Party, the Green Party and the Socialist Left Party. Their vision is “a greener, warmer and more creative city with room for everyone” (Municipal plan, 2018). Oslo’s politicians are ambitious in transforming the food system, especially in relation to climate friendly food policies such as reducing meat consumption and food waste.

Oslo FUSILLI Living Lab – Karvesvingen 3 demonstration site

Oslo’s choice of its FUSILLI Living Lab represents one of many arenas for change in transforming the food system: the work place. The work place is where people usually eat 1 out of 3 daily meals. Mostly lunch, but also breakfast and/or dinner, depending on the life situation and working hours. Around 750 people work in Karvesvingen 3 (see image above), the building where Oslo’s Living Lab is located. They all represent a variety of professions, gender and ages – aspects that have an influence on people’s diets.

Earlier insights indicate that people are strongly influenced by their co-workers, employers and the actual meal service offerings. In our Living Lab, we will explore roles, possibilities and challenges associated with healthy and sustainable eating at work. We also want to implement policies and actions in the Karvesvingen 3 Living Lab to produce useful experiences for further implementation in the City of Oslo and elsewhere in Norway and Europe.

We will explore opportunities and barriers to transforming the food system through the work place, which is an important arena for new impulses and individual behavioural change. We will share our results with our networks of real estate companies, meal service providers and employers in Oslo, Norway and Europe.

Main objectives and planned implementations

For Sodexo Norway (Meal Services & Facility Management Company):

• Climate label our menus (Klimato) to nudge behavioral change
• Reduce use of red meat
• Replace dairy products with plant-based products
• Increase proportion of plant-based meals up to 30% of our food selection by 2025
• Increase use of Future 50 Foods (WWF and Knorr) – for healthy people and a healthier planet
• Reduce food waste
• Offer 24-hour meal service / Grab&Go healthy convenience through smart fridges and digital solutions

Oslo’s Demo sites

Research questions:

• What is the role of real estate companies, meal service providers and employers in transforming the food system?
• What is the significance and potential in eating healthy and sustainably at work in relation to people’s diets?
• What is and what could be the relationship between employers and workers with respect to healthy and sustainable diets?

Links to FUSILLI pages in Norwegian

• FUSILLI  |  Oslo kommune
• Fostering the Urban Food System Transformation through Innovative Living Labs Implementation (FUSILLI)  |  OsloMet