Shop, cook, and consume sustainably

How does one manage a household sustainably?

The vast majority of people can be found at least once a week doing a big shop at the supermarket. Product after product goes into the shopping cart, until finally a batch of fresh goods, as well as numerous cans, Tetra Paks, and jars end up on the conveyor belt at the checkout. A significant portion of this shopping will sooner or later end up in the trash: An individual in Europe throws away an average of 7.5 kilograms of food per month. But how does this happen? And how can shopping and consumption be made more sustainable, both ecologically and economically?

Shop, cook, and consume sustainably

For a variety of reasons, an increasing number of people are striving to lead a life that is more sustainable in many aspects. Personal consumption behavior is often the main focus here: With our purchasing and consumption decisions, we actively contribute to regulating the use of plastic and natural resources, determining the use of land, and supporting certain industries.

If we throw away a considerable part of the food we purchase without using it, the balance is not very positive: We have not only unnecessarily consumed a lot of packaging material and indirectly utilized storage space and transportation services, but also wasted food that could have been put to better use elsewhere.

How does the fact of massive food waste fit with the pursuit of a sustainable lifestyle? In fact, very few people consciously decide to buy excess or to leave food unused. This behavior is rather due to a lack of planning: We do not have an overview of our supplies, we buy certain products multiple times, and let others that we have long forgotten rot away in the depths of our pantry.

Are there still pantries?

That there are still pantries today, and that in times when supermarkets offer a comprehensive range almost around the clock, they are not just a fringe phenomenon, became apparent at the latest with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic: Bulk purchases were publicly discussed and more and more people began to stock their pantry for the coming weeks. However, most households do not have a well-managed space when it comes to storage rooms or cabinets. Ask yourself if you really know what food items you have at home right now. Do you check your supplies before every shopping trip? Or do you shop on impulse, ultimately undermining your attempts to live more economically and ecologically sustainable?

You probably have little to no idea what's in your pantry – and you're in good company. It's not uncommon to find canned goods that expired years ago or food covered with a thick layer of mold in the farthest corners of our kitchen or cellar cabinets. Almost weekly, we buy canned goods that we already have in abundance at home. But how can we tackle this problem efficiently?

How you can create order

Perhaps you're clearing out your pantry as part of the spring cleaning to create order. But is that really enough, or is a truly comprehensive inventory management necessary to maintain an overview? And how can this be achieved when hardly anyone has the time or inclination to fill out lengthy Excel spreadsheets or to set up a complicated household and pantry ledger? Fortunately, there are better solutions to keep track of your own stock, to be able to shop strategically, and thus fill the fridge and pantry efficiently and sustainably: Digital tools make it easy to manage pantry storage.

A major organizing action and smaller recordings after shopping are already sufficient for this purpose. Thus, only the barcodes of the stored products need to be scanned and the expiration dates manually entered into the app. As a result, a digital management of the refrigerator and pantry is created, ensuring that it is always clear during the weekly shopping what supplies are available at home. Ultimately, such digitization of the pantry leads to not buying items twice, to food no longer sprinting towards their expiration date under the radar, to less being thrown away, and to saving hard cash.

Based on the inventory management, the app can generate a shopping list that reflects the actual food requirements, not just the assumed ones, so that the personal stock can be replenished or consumed in a targeted manner. The dream of sustainable living no longer needs to remain just a dream.

Is it possible without an app?

Of course, food storage at home can also be made more sustainable and efficient without an app. However, the effort is significantly higher in this case, as inventory lists must be manually maintained and constantly updated. Those who do not own a smartphone or cannot or do not want to use an app for other reasons can, in principle, implement the concept of digital inventory management in an analog way and thus achieve their goal.

It is important to not only check the storage in the pantry sporadically, but to update the inventory list after every purchase and every use. Moreover, without an app, shopping lists must be created by hand again – so the need for groceries must also be constantly determined independently.

In conclusion: There are many ways to achieve a more sustainable pantry

In conclusion, it is clear that there are many paths to a more sustainable pantry. However, what all these paths have in common is that they rely on consistent logging of all available food items in the house. Only through such comprehensive recording can needs-based shopping and consumption be achieved. The new organizational method can be most easily integrated into daily life via an app, but if necessary, it can also be done by analog means. What may sound unfamiliar at first ultimately leads to success: statistically, it is possible to save 7.5 kilograms of food per person per month, in addition to significant savings in packaging, not to mention the positive impact on the climate and on one's wallet.