Advancing MuNicipal Circlular Economy

In 2020, the EU generated nearly 59 million tonnes of food waste (FW), valued at €132 billion. Of this total, households contributed around 31 million tonnes of FW (53% of the total), while restau...

The ADVANCE project had the following objectives: - To assess the current situation regarding food waste (FW) generation and management practices in selected municipalities and SMEs in the HORECA sector - To develop a concrete set of Circularity Benchmarking Indicators that will be used to describe both the current status and the future monitoring of FW management in municipalities and HORECA SMEs - To assess the gap between the baseline assessment and the requirements posed by EU and national regulations, setting realistic targets - To identify best practices in FW management - To develop two Gap Analysis tools for municipalities and HORECA SMEs aiming to assess (i) the knowledge of current and future personnel and (ii) the performance of the targeted entities - To develop two Roadmaps (for municipalities and HORECA SMEs) and a step-by-step Action Plan regarding FW measurement, management and monitoring - To create training/educational materials addressed to personnel of municipalities and HORECA SMEs - To develop an online platform which will include & host all the above, as well as further information (e.g. FW calculators).

The main activities implemented were the following: A. Prior to submission the consortium: - was formulated - conducted research to define the problem; - identified and analysed the needs - conducted an overall project planning and submitted the application form. B. When the project was contracted and launched: - NTUA developed a Project Management Plan (PMP) as the Coordinator, which set the main management tools and procedures; - SIGMA developed a Risk Management Plan (as part of the PMP), which served as a risk management tool stipulating the main risks to the project activities, based on internal and external context; - NTUA developed the Project Timeline (as part of PMP), which served as a main time management tool, containing the schedule of activities, task assignments and responsibilities and relevant deadlines; - NTUA established a financial reporting mechanism with 6-month progress reports, which was mandatory for the partners; - Horeca Partners, City of Novi Sad and City of Zadar developed the Sharing, Promotion & Use (SPU) Plan, which served as the main guideline for effective communication & dissemination with project target groups and stakeholders; - SIGMA and D-WASTE developed the Quality Assurance Strategy (QAS), which served as a main quality assurance tool; - the consortium as a whole planed thoroughly the development of Project Results (PR) including methodologies, templates and guidelines for execution of activities related to the respective PR; - each PR was assigned to a PR Leader and each Task to a Task Leader who were responsible for the implementation and the corrective actions (refinements) based on the conclusions from performed external and internal evaluations; - dissemination activities (i.e. organisation of multiplier events and stakeholder meetings, website development, posts in project’s FB and LinkedIn pages, posts on project partners’ websites, articles on e-journals, cross-links with other projects, etc.); - NTUA monitored and measured the processes according to the plan, policies, objectives and requirements, Internal evaluation (peer reviews by all partners; assessment by QAS leader) & External evaluation (pilot tests with target groups). C. Project Closure – The consortium implement the following activities: - carrying out the last project meeting; - planning of resources and actions to ensure sustainability of the project results after its end; - preparation of final report on project implementation; - final reporting, and guaranteeing post project developments and actions.

ADVANCE produced the following concrete outputs and results: - Baseline assessment (PR1) of the current waste food waste management practices in Municipalities and HORECA SMEs, which also included benchmarking to existing best practices in EU. Within PR1 primary questionnaire surveys were conducted to selected households, HORECA businesses and municipalities and FW Benchmarking indicators were developed for municipalities and HORECA SMEs. - Gap Analysis methodology and tools (PR2) between current and required, according to the EU targets, FW management practices relevant to food waste. The main outcome of the PR2 was an online tool hosted in ADVANCE Platform (PR5), which serves as a mechanism for target groups to assess their overall competences, capability and skills on Circular Economy and FW Management processes. To better serve its purposes, two separate tools were developed, one for HORECA SMEs and one for Municipalities. Each of these tools is comprised of two different sub-tools for high-level personnel (focused on the assessment of the organisation in relation to FW production and management) and existing/future employees (focused on knowledge assessment). - Development of ADVANCE Roadmap (PR3) to achieve the food waste targets set by the EU and the SDGs and catalyse synergies between municipalities and HORECA SMEs. More specifically, two different Roadmaps were developed (one for municipalities and one for the HORECA SMEs) that share common characteristics (e.g., they address actions required considering the EU and national strategies, focus on food waste prevention, develop a step-by-step action plan, etc.). The Roadmaps were established on the outcomes of PR1 and PR2 and used Circularity Gap Indicators (based on the benchmarking indicators and the gap analysis assessment) as its main tool to guide the required steps. A special part of the Roadmaps was devoted to demonstrate best practices and how Industry 4.0 can help municipalities and HORECA SMEs to achieve better food waste management and advance food waste prevention. - The ADVANCE Course (PR4) prepared a curriculum and developed training material broken down into certain learning modules and teaching units, covering areas of the whole spectrum of FW generation and management. The training course utilises a variety of proven online learning techniques (e.g., self-assessment questions, multiple types of sources for further information, etc) and is adapted to the needs of the predefined target groups to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension, and retention of the information presented. The online training course is available online via the ADVANCE Platform and is accompanied by a training handbook. - The ADVANCE Online Platform (PR5), which includes and hosts the above-mentioned tools and materials. Moreover, the platform aims to establish an on-line community around the issue of food waste generation and management and therefore includes related projects, videos and food waste calculator covering different needs.