From trade-offs to synergies: integrating socio-economic and environmental impacts into food system management

Food systems are responsible for environmental degradation, economic inefficiencies, and social inequities. In this sense, approaches to tackle multiple targets are needed to trace sustainability transition pathways and address potential trade-offs. This thesis develops a flexible methodological framework based on Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) to link environmental and socio-economic impacts and to translate sustainability assessment into actionable strategies. To do so, it explores how sustainability needs’ identification, prioritisation, and operationalisation can be streamlined in an LCT-based sustainability framework grounded in real stakeholders’ needs. The thesis first identifies how sustainability is perceived and communicated by different actors, then it integrates environmental and socio-economic indicators through multi-impact analysis to prioritise sustainability-oriented interventions and finally translates these insights into a user-friendly tool for food practitioners. The application to different case studies across the food chain - from innovative urban production systems to primary food production and collective catering -demonstrates that LCT should evolve from a theoretical concept to a pragmatic support for sustainable food system management. This research posits that systemic change in food systems depends also on coherent and scientifically-sound strategies based on and designed for stakeholders’ needs, that would enable food actors to understand, measure, and act upon sustainability in an integrated way.