# Addressing Sustainability within Public Procurement of Food: A Systematic Literature Review
## 3 Results
### Connecting Sustainability to Focus Words
#### 3.3.1 Framing Environmental Sustainability  
As illustrated in Figure 9, waste and organic foods were highlighted in relation to environmental sustainability. Waste, was primarily associated with waste due to meal preparation, menu design, or final consumer waste, see e.g., [50; 58; 59; 60]. Different suggestions are brought forward in the articles to reduce food waste in the public sector, e.g., ensuring high quality ingredients are used, regulating staff capacity for food preparation, addressing the end consumer's needs, but also a need for policy measures to address the issue [58; 61]. Reduced use of resources and reduced packaging was highlighted in several articles to relate to environmental sustainability, see e.g., [18; 62; 41]. A suggested measure to reduce waste was to employ a more'systematic perspective' by increasing the share of recycled (and recyclable) materials for food packaging and redistribute food waste [54; 55; 62; 63]. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Link to Sustainability Pillar.** & **Social** & **Environmental** & **Economic** \\ \hline
**Strong** & 49 & 54 & 33 \\
**Weak** & 46 & 35 & 45 \\
**Total** & 95 & _89_ & _78_ \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Articles addressing sustainability pillars. Figure 8: Number of articles reviewing the different pillars of sustainability (Social-Soc., Economic-Econ., Environmental-Env.). In the literature, it was generally assumed that organic foods are more environmentally sustainable than conventionally produced foods [29; 64; 65]. The procurement of organic food was primarily motivated by the reduced use of fertilizers and pesticides, preventing soil degradation and eutrophication, improved biodiversity, and reduced GHG emission [19; 39; 46; 53; 55]. It was found that organic labels were commonly used as a measure of environmentally sound products. This included different national forms of organic labeling schemes, such as the EU Ecolabel [66], and in Latin America, the IBD label, which was used in all six cases presented in Blanc and Kledal [56]. Finally, several articles claim that organic foods contain fewer chemicals, less antibiotics, and are more nutritious than conventional food products, thereby contributing to better health for consumers and the environment [49; 67; 68]. From the results, local food was a prominent focus for articles addressing the environmental sustainability of public procurement of food. In a large number of articles, locally procured foods were mentioned as a way to reduce environmental impacts, by the reduced need for transportation, due to shorter distances for distribution (often referred to as 'food miles'). As such, many of the articles discussing reduced transportation, also were highlighting more local systems, even if it may not be explicit. In these articles, the minimized food miles, i.e., locally sourced food, were additionally assumed to contribute to a reduced need for packaging, due to close geographical proximity and reduced supply chain distances. The potential reduction of emissions from transportation when food is procured locally was frequently emphasized and mentioned in almost a third of the articles reviewed, see e.g., [18; 69; 70]. Food miles were also a common indicator highlighted to measure the sustainability of the public procurement of food [58; 62; 70]. Local foods were also identified to benefit the local environment. Procuring local food was claimed to be more ecologically beneficial on many levels, including diversifying agriculture and protecting local biodiversity by less intensive practices [38; 55; 57]. Local food producers were also suggested to be more energy-efficient due to a reduced need for storage and assumed to care more for the soil and water consumption than large conventional farmers [68]. As suggested in [PERSON] et al. [57], local food producers were considered contributors to national food system resilience and less affected by climate change due to their diversity.