BetterPlanet: Sustainability Feedback from Digital Receipts

Abstract

The global food system accounts for 25–30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. A large share of these emissions is due to individual food shopping patterns. Despite the rising concern about the environment, many individuals fail to act upon it and change their food consumption. In this study, we attempt to motivate individuals to reduce their food-shopping-induced environmental footprint. To narrow the intention-behavior gap, we propose a novel technical system that gives automated near-term sustainability feedback on individuals’ food shopping recorded on digital receipts and communicates this feedback through the mobile application BetterPlanet, Based on a small sample (n = 8), we find a directional decrease in the overall CO$_{2}$-Scores. Therefore, our study demonstrates the technical feasibility of automated sustainability feedback from digital receipts. The proposed energy-weighted CO$_{2}$-Scoring Model contributes to the growing knowledge body of sustainability assessment.