Sustainability
What the exam tests
Sustainability tests environmental accounting, food loss and waste, packaging trade-offs, and credible claims. Expect LCA reasoning and avoidance of greenwashing.
Core rules
- Triple bottom line: people, planet, profit. Materiality determines which impacts matter.
- LCA follows ISO 14040/14044: goal and scope, inventory, impact assessment, and interpretation. The functional unit, such as 1 kg of delivered product, is essential; without it, comparisons are invalid.
- GHG accounting: Scope 1 direct, Scope 2 purchased energy, Scope 3 value-chain emissions, which are usually the largest for food.
- Food loss occurs before retail; food waste occurs at retail and consumer. Prevention beats redistribution, which beats recycling, which beats disposal.
- Packaging trade-offs: lightweighting reduces material but may raise spoilage; recyclability depends on local infrastructure; compostable is not automatically better.
- Regenerative agriculture, water stewardship, and certifications such as Rainforest Alliance and Fair Trade need verification.
Worked example
A company compares glass, PET, and aseptic cartons for 1 L of juice. On a per-container basis, glass may look heavy, but the functional unit is 1 L of juice delivered without spoilage. If cartons have a lower spoilage rate and lighter transport, the system-wide carbon footprint can be lower despite mixed-material recyclability. The team must state the functional unit, boundary, and end-of-life assumptions before claiming most sustainable.
Traps
Claiming carbon neutral without reductions. Comparing packages without a functional unit. Ignoring Scope 3. Treating recyclable as recycled. Assuming compostable packaging degrades in a landfill. Forgetting that food waste itself carries embedded emissions.