Singapore’s largest university is trialing menus that display the carbon emissions of meals sold at outlets across its campus.
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National University of Singapore (NUS) is to display the emissions associated with meals sold at around 90 on-campus dining outlets, starting with three restaurants at Yusok Ishak House – a noodle bar, a mixed rice stall and a Japanese yakitori outlet. The pilot is set to go live in March, once the carbon cost of the various menus has been calculated.
The initiative will work in a similar way to Singapore’s Healthier Dining Programme, which encourages food and beverage outlets to display calorie and nutrition information on menus to help manage the city-state’s diabetes problem.
A number – using carbon dioxide per kilogram per meal as the metric – will feature next to food options on physical menus as well as on the university dining mobile application.
A sample of a carbon menu that will feature in the pilot project to run on campus at National University of Singapore. Image: Zevero
The idea behind the project is to generate insights into whether and how carbon information influences meal selection at the point of purchase, and to identify pathways for reducing food-related emissions at scale.
The displayed carbon metric will be based on the emissions from the ingredients of the dish, including how they are farmed and sourced, as well as the cooking methods used and assumptions made about packaging and waste.
The methodology used aligns with the ISO 14067 carbon accounting principle.
Mizuho Taniguchi, senior manager at Zevero, a carbon management company involved in the project, told Eco-Business that for now, only a single metric would feature next to each meal to keep the communication simple, but researchers were considering adding more information in due course, such as the carbon footprint of the raw ingredients used, depending on the success of the pilot.
Sumit Agarwal, professor of finance at NUS Business School and managing director of the Sustainable and Green Finance Institute, which is leading the project, said in a press statement that food choices are one of the most immediate and visible ways individuals can take climate action, and the initiative could create “a generation of students who not only understand their footprint, but who are equipped to make informed, climate-positive decisions.”
The first carbon menu was deployed by Swedish fast-food chain Max Burgers in 2008. The concept gained more traction elsewhere in Europe and the United States amid the Covid-19 pandemic – a move observers saw as a precursor to mandatory carbon labeling. While no countries currently mandate carbon labeling on food menus, France is working on a national environmental scoring scheme for all food providers called Eco-Score, to be introduced in October.
In Singapore, healty eating retailer SaladStop!, which operates in eight territories in Asia Pacific, was among the first to trial carbon menus in the city-state in 2021. The concept is ongoing, and customers can choose to “go climate positive” and offset the carbon footprint of their salads by paying an additional fee, which goes towards environmental projects such as mangrove reforestation in Indonesia.
Studies on the effectiveness of carbon labels on food have largely been limited to trials in universities, such as the one at NUS. According to a study published by Cambridge University Press last October, the introduction of carbon labels on menus globally have resulted in a 1.7–4.6 percentage-point shift from meat to lower-carbon vegetarian meals in university trials. By comparison, a study of the effects of carbon menus in call-centre cafeterias in Northern England found a lower shift – of 1.5 percentage-points – from meat to vegetarian options.
Singapore students are sceptical of carbon menus
Some students interviewed by Eco-Business said cost, convenience and serving speed remained stronger influences on meal choices than environmental considerations, and questioned whether carbon information alone would prompt large-scale shifts toward lower-carbon options.
A vegetarian student from India said Singapore’s food culture remains heavily meat-based, making widespread adoption of plant-based meals less likely. Another student said financial incentives, such as the university’s bring-your-own scheme, which offers discounts to those who use their own containers, would be more effective in driving behavioural change.
Singapore’s food supply chain has a significant carbon footprint, driven by a high reliance on imports (90 per cent) and emissions from transport, especially air freight, with per-serving emissions for local dishes like chicken rice tripling due to increased processing and international sourcing.
The global food production system is one of the largest contributors to climate change, estimated to be responsible for 21–37 per cent of anthropogenic emissions.
