Award Abstract # 2318211
Belmont Forum Collaborative Research: The Role of Supermarkets as Key Agents in Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production

NSF Org: RISE
Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER)
Recipient: MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: May 9, 2023
Latest Amendment Date: August 29, 2024
Award Number: 2318211
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Maria Uhle
muhle@nsf.gov
 (703)292-2250
RISE
 Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER)
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: May 15, 2023
End Date: April 30, 2026 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $393,031.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $393,031.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2023 = $192,343.00
FY 2024 = $200,688.00
History of Investigator:
  • Thomas Reardon (Principal Investigator)
    reardon@msu.edu
  • Vincenzina Caputo (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Robert Ross (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Michigan State University
426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2
EAST LANSING
MI  US  48824-2600
(517)355-5040
Sponsor Congressional District: 07
Primary Place of Performance: Michigan State University
426 AUDITORIUM RD RM 2
EAST LANSING
MI  US  48824-2600
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
07
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): R28EKN92ZTZ9
Parent UEI: VJKZC4D1JN36
NSF Program(s): XC-Crosscutting Activities Pro,
Intl Global Change Res & Coord
Primary Program Source: 01002324DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01002425DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT

01002526DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 1679, 7313, EGCH
Program Element Code(s): 722200, 731300
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

This award provides support to U.S. researchers participating in a project competitively selected by a 55-country initiative on global change research through the Belmont Forum. The Belmont Forum is a consortium of research funding organizations focused on support for transdisciplinary approaches to global environmental change challenges and opportunities. It aims to accelerate delivery of the international research most urgently needed to remove critical barriers to sustainability by aligning and mobilizing international resources. Each partner country provides funding for their researchers within a consortium to alleviate the need for funds to cross international borders. This approach facilitates effective leveraging of national resources to support excellent research on topics of global relevance best tackled through a multinational approach, recognizing that global challenges need global solutions. This award provides support for the U.S. researchers to cooperate in consortia that consist of partners from at least three of the participating countries. The teams will develop and employ new transdisciplinary approaches to address sustainable consumption and production as a socio-technical system to help inform decision-making for sustainable, resilient, and just systems of consumption and production.
The project focuses on the highly influential role that supermarkets play in the shift towards Systems of Sustainable Consumption and Production (SSCP). These entities impose standards on their suppliers and shape consumer behavior - for good or bad. Sustainability behavior of supermarket chains differs considerably across sustainability dimensions, business models, and countries. This project links the observed sustainability patterns to the business rationale of firms to understand why corporate sustainability profiles differ so strongly across retail corporations, to gain insight on corporate decision-making and to help explain strategic differences. The project investigates decision-making through an innovative analytical framework integrating management science, value chain research, and socio-technical systems research and several methodological approaches including business management research, consumer behavioral economics, and environmental impact analysis. This project will increase the knowledge of policymakers, civil society organizations, private sector associations, and consumer groups about what are the current actions, opportunities, and challenges for supermarket chains to increase the sustainability of their food products and services. This knowledge will help design better sustainability strategies, and products and processes, directly benefitting consumers and the environment by tracking and monitoring the environmental footprint of food retailers? sourcing and marketing actions in their societies and build long term partnerships to sustain change.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

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