Girona kicks off the 'Less Waste, More Sovereignty' strategy

Thursday, March 26, 2026

This initiative is part of the post‑growth agreement established between the Girona City Council, the University of Girona, Research & Degrowth, and Dark Matter Labs

The Girona City Council's Councillor for Climate Action, Sergi Cot Cantalosella, and University of Girona (UdG) researcher Enric Cassú launched the "Less Waste, More Sovereignty" strategy this morning and presented the project along with its main lines of work. This initiative forms part of the post‑growth agreement established between the Girona City Council, the UdG - through the LEQUIA research group - Research & Degrowth, and Dark Matter Labs. It will also receive support and involvement from the Climate Action Chair jointly held by the Girona City Council and the University of Girona, as the project fits fully within its strategic lines of work.

The main objective of this proposal is to bring together a set of actions aimed at preventing food waste in the city and surrounding areas, and to enable a transition toward a more sustainable, local, and sovereign urban food model. Among the actions to be carried out are: a project to introduce surplus‑food fridges for school canteens, which will be launched in the second half of 2026; the existing agreement with Espigoladors for the recovery of urban fruit; competitive‑grant funding dedicated to projects that combat food waste; and the "edible city" proposal, based on promoting and managing urban garden spaces, along with other educational and outreach activities.

"Today we present the project and the strategy 'Less Waste, More Sovereignty', which stems from the post‑growth agreement that the City Council has established with various organisations since the beginning of this term. It is a genuine proposal, with a pioneering and essential municipal perspective, and it is of great interest from a climate, environmental, social, and also political standpoint. Girona and its urban area have characteristics that we must take advantage of in the fight against food waste, beyond the domestic sphere," emphasised Councillor Sergi Cot Cantalosella. "This is a project with a clear metropolitan vocation and, at the same time, the ambition to expand to other municipalities. Ultimately, it brings together a series of elements that help make the fight against food waste more universal and mainstream, as a key pillar in climate, environmental, and social terms."

As announced last May, during the first year of the post‑growth agreement a city plan on food waste was designed with the involvement of various stakeholders. This plan will begin to be implemented in the coming months under the name "Less Waste, More Sovereignty".
One of the main components of the strategy will be the project "More Sovereignty and Less Waste: Transforming the Food System in the Girona Urban Area", developed as part of the industrial PhD carried out by Enric Cassú between the UdG and a private foundation. "We need this engine of change - a food system that is more sovereign and more agroecological, one that gives us the capacity to strengthen both farmers and the entire local economy of small‑scale producers in fishing, livestock, agriculture, and agroforestry, so they can contribute the added value of agroecology rooted in the territory, in social‑economy networks, and in health," he noted, adding that "we have somewhat lost and disconnected what we eat from the territory, from health, and from the economy. Therefore, we are reinforcing our territory's ability to give us back the tools and mechanisms to generate a food system that benefits us."