IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

Dietary guidelines are a primary tool for promoting healthier and more sustainable diets. Despite several examples of dietary guidelines that consider - to various degrees - aspects of environmental sustainability, there is currently no framework that systematically incorporates environmental sustainability as a primary consideration. We present a five-step framework for developing environmentally sustainable dietary guidelines that would simultaneously meet nutritional requirements while staying within environmental boundaries. The steps comprise: 1) determining an average healthy diet for different population groups and criteria for healthy diets; 2) identifying relevant environmental aspects and establishing corresponding boundaries; 3) identifying systemic effects and crucial sustainability aspects; 4) altering the average diet to meet environmental goals and resolve trade-offs between environmental and nutritional goals; and 5) formulating sustainable food-based dietary guidelines. To exemplify the framework, we pilot it in the Swedish context, but it could be utilised for any other country.