How is Italy doing on sustainability according to the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda? In the panorama of the European Union, with respect to the SDGs, or Sustainable Development Goals, our country ranks below the European average for many of the goals. On the other hand, the balance is very positive for Goal 2, concerning agriculture and food, and the related Goal 12: ‘responsible consumption and production’. These data emerge from the report prepared by the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development , presented in June this year, and they are important because they give us a measure of how much work still needs to be done by our country on sustainability, understood at the environmental level, at the social level, as gender equality, just to name a few, but also how much work has been done on at least two of the goals achieved: food and related consumption alongside sustainable production. A useful indication for mapping a path to awareness.
The research on food delivery and sustainability conducted by IZILab and IZIfits, in this sense, squarely within the debate on the achievement of the SDGs and is revealing that a determined awarenessis maturing in the food and consumption sector, affecting the entire value chain, all stakeholders. As our own survey testifies, sustainability is an issue that has implications for consumption choices: as consumers it confronts us with considerations, decisions, awareness. It is therefore still relegated to the cultural aspect, but this awareness of sustainability is crucial because from here it can become a driver of consumption, even more responsible.
An evolution that the research tells through data and notes in the pre- and post-pandemic comparison, with the impact it has had on our consumption attitudes in food delivery. Investigating with a double level of analysis, social and customer satisfaction, as we did with the research ‘Food delivery, sustainability and Covid: analysis, trends, policy’, is therefore an insightful tool that allows us to say that there is some user interest in sustainability in the home food delivery service, and that together with factors such as speed of delivery, staff courtesy and preservation of the delivered product, it is important. It also emerges that users are willing to be more flexible on costs if it meets their needs and thus also a greater demand for sustainability.
The research, designed by IZILab,was developed with the support of technology partner KPI6, with which the part concerning social listening analysis and identification of target consumer audiences was built; with the contribution of the Centre for Research on Circular Economy Innovation and SMEs (CERCIS) at the University of Ferrara, in particular Professor Davide Antonioli and PhD Marco Quatrosi; and with the testimony of food delivery industry player Glovo. The results of the research were discussed in a webinar, with the participation of all partners involved, and which we will make available soon.
As of today, this research, in its integrated version of the two analyses, can be downloaded on the IZILab website.