The MCURC’s Collective Impact Initiative
The MCURC helps colleges and universities work together to reduce food-related emissions through research, education, and innovation. We do this through establishing metrics, collective targets, and a community of best practices to help members better understand the health and environmental impact of our collective purchases, and we provide data-driven insights to help them accelerate progress – all while leveraging our combined purchasing power toward shared goals. In 2019, we set a collective target to reduce food-related greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of food across the MCURC by 25% by 2030. In 2023, we extended this target to a 40% reduction per kilogram by 2030, to align more closely with the global recommendation to shift toward the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet.
Progress
Between 2019-2023, the MCURC’s cohort of universities has tracked over 300 million pounds of protein purchases and seen a collective 23% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of food purchased among participating institutions. This represents nearly 60% progress toward its long-term target over just five years–and across 33 institutions. In 2024, we had our first paper featuring the Collective Impact Initiative published in an academic journal: Entitled “Evaluating Food Procurement against the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet in a Sample of U.S. Universities,” it was led by former SFI Senior Advisor and former Collective Impact Lead Dr. Jackie Bertoldo, and it illustrates opportunities to improve nutrition and reduce food-related emissions by aligning institutional food procurement with planetary health targets.
MCURC & Cool Food: A Partnership Helping Higher Education Tackle Climate Change Through Food
The MCURC and World Resources Institute’s Coolfood initiative share a commitment to helping colleges and universities reduce their food-related emissions in line with climate targets. Despite using different methodologies, we arrive at similar findings: Coolfood’s target to reduce absolute food-related emissions by 25% translates to a 38% reduction per 1,000 kilocalories between 2015 and 2030, which is similar to the MCURC target of a 40% reduction per kilogram between 2019 and 2030. We’ve partnered to bring the latest science and robust networking and knowledge-sharing opportunities to support colleges and universities in reducing food-related emissions.
Depending on how much support your organization has for climate action through food purchases, how ready it is for change, how much knowledge and awareness you already have about the most impactful strategies, there is a rich array of resources and initiatives to help you on the journey. As a foodservice organization working on sustainable food, by no means do you need to choose between Collective Impact and Coolfood. It’s truly not an either/or situation, but rather, an opportunity to engage with a broad portfolio of resources and an entire ecosystem of organizations and initiatives all working toward a shared goal. Among the best of these resources is WRI’s new Food Service Playbook for Promoting Sustainable Food Choices.
