13 What Tools Can Support This Work?
A lack of supporting tools can be a barrier. There are a few tools specific to nutrition and dietetic practice. You will find some tools developed for other purposes, but they can be adapted to your practice. The resources in this chapter are labelled using the following Roles: Dietetic Educator, Clinical, Public Health, Foodservice, Community and Students.
Learning Activities
13.1 Read
To help you answer this question, we highlight a few diverse examples for you to look at.
Choose one to two of the following resources that align with your current or future practice (~45 minutes).
Teaching Food Systems and Sustainability in Nutrition Education and Dietetic Training: Lessons for Educators[PDF]. This document is a compilation of lesson plans from food, nutrition and dietetic educators at universities and food organisations in the US and Canada.
Roles: Dietetic Educator
Planetary Health Report Card: Curriculum Metrics Tips for Data Collection[PDF]. The Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) was adapted for nutrition and dietetics [1] in 2024 by a student-faculty team at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. The tips in the PDF document were created by them to guide you through the process of assessing your school and curriculum.
Roles: Dietetic Educator
FOODPathS Toolkit is available online. The FOODPathS Toolkit provides a comprehensive toolkit with best practices, useful tools, and resources to help you design and strengthen inclusive partnerships. You will find three categories of tools: Concept tools, Mapping tools, and engagement tools.
Roles: All D-N practitioners
CASCADES Food Infrastructures for Planetary Health is available online. This playbook provides decision-making related to food infrastructures for planetary health throughout the planning, design, construction and ongoing operation of Canadian healthcare facilities.
Roles: Clinical, Foodservice
Global Food Research Program’s Policy Research is available online. The University of North Carolina’s work on food policy, including marketing regulations, Food and Nutrition assistance, labelling regulations, fiscal policies, school food environments, and food system surveillance. This research is and excellent tool for professionals interested in policy advocacy.
Roles: Public Health, Community
Sustainable Salsa Activity for Educators 2024 [PDF]. This activity teaches students about sustainability through local and seasonal foods and provides an easy and sustainable recipe. It’s easier to talk about sustainability over food!
Roles: Dietetic Educator, Students
One Blue Dot: Eating Patterns for Healthy and Sustainable Diets is available online. This web-based toolkit offers a series of downloadable PDF resources outlining healthy eating patterns and sustainable diets in the European context. This includes evidence summaries, infographics, PowerPoint slides and meal swap ideas.
Roles: All D-N practitioners, Students
The Marine Stewardship Council’s ‘What is Sustainable Fishing?’ is available online. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) website offers information on the certification process as well as recipes, food guides, educational materials and support for supply chain actors about sustainable seafood in 18 languages.
Roles: All D-N practitioners, Students
Food Traditions and Cultural Wisdom [PDF]. This activity is an introductory level suite of discussion-based activities to get community members, fellow professionals, or clients thinking about how their own food traditions and cultural wisdom align with sustainability. It is designed for dietetic educators or nutritionists involved in community education and programming.
Roles: Community, Students, Dietetic Educators
Great Meals for a Change Dining Educational Kit [PDF]. This activity, based on fun and playful meal-sharing activities, is meant for those with roles in community, education and research who are interested in education, developing their own knowledge and activating change. It is relevant to any region.
Roles: Community, Dietetic Education
Making Institutional Foodservices More Healthy & Sustainable [PDF]. This activity is meant for those in foodservice and administration roles who are interested in menu and policy change. It is relevant to North America, Europe, Australasia and anywhere else with similar institutional food service models.
Roles: Foodservice
13.2 Reflect
After looking through examples of the existing and summarised tools for practice, please reflect on the following questions. (~30 minutes)
- Are any of these resources able to support the ideas and solutions you came up with in Chapter 11?*
- If yes, keep a list of practical tools that you can use.*
- If not, can you find any helpful resources or tools on the Additional Resources for Sustainable Food Systems Work page available online?*
- Did any of the tools for practice spark new ideas for you about how you can creatively approach sustainability in your current or future practice?*
- If yes, what ideas were sparked? Create a brainstorm list or idea map and keep it in your files, or on your office wall, to remind you. Write down any tools that might be helpful.*
Congratulations on finishing Chapter 13!
- Planetary Health Report Card. Nutrition & Dietetics Annual Summary Reports [Internet]. PHRC. 2025 [cited 2025 Jul 1]. Available from: https://phreportcard.org/nutrition-dietetics/ ↵
We recognize our audience is a combination of all protected terms and therefore are using the title Dietitian-Nutritionist as per ICDA’s definition: “A Dietitian-Nutritionist is a professional who applies the science of food and nutrition to promote health, prevent and treat disease to optimise the health of individuals, groups, communities and populations.” -ICDA, 2014
