9. Diffusion of a Social Innovation: Spatial Aspects of “Foodsharing” Distribution in Germany

The global scarcity of resources, reaching the limits of growth and planetary boundaries, cannot be overcome by technical efficiency alone. As implementation of countermeasures, an increase in technical efficiency is important, but a profound societal change, comprising a transition in lifestyle and consumption habits, must happen as well. With annually 1.3 billion tons of registered food waste, 39% of avoidable waste fall to the share of private households and 14% to wholesale and retail markets, giving the field of nutrition an outstanding potential for resource-efficient behavior. These large amounts of food waste imply the need for closed loops (supply chains) and innovative solutions for complex structures in parts of acquisition, production, distribution, and consumption of food supply in private and public sectors. The example of an innovative logistic system, addressing food waste as a self-organized network to share food in order to preserve it from being thrown away via an Internet platform, is “Foodsharing.” Like many sustainable innovations, “Foodsharing” is located in a niche, and its diffusion is critical for its establishment, which is a typical starting point for societal transformation processes. According to, innovations in sustainability in Germany are present but do not spread through economy and society fast enough. The understanding of the diffusion dynamics of bottom-up innovations like “Foodsharing” is necessary for its promotion and will be the focus of the article. For the first time, the diffusion of “Foodsharing” in Germany is visualized and examined toward spatial attributes to foster sustainable innovations and support their diffusion. There has been evidence of an increasing concentration of “Foodsharing” applications in urban areas in contrast to its rural distribution. Although the dissemination of “Foodsharing” via distance-independent mass media is possible, the “transmission” of social innovation seems to take place increasingly through local, i.e., personal, contacts. This seems to lead to consolidation in the niche rather than moving out of it. One reason might be rural-urban milieu differences as a correlation between registrations and socioeconomic data can be demonstrated. However, since urban and rural areas also differ greatly in terms of infrastructure, it needs to be investigated to what extent existing infrastructures, such as supermarket density or logistics of food collection and distribution by bicycles, due to the ecological motivation of members, influence the spatial distribution of “Foodsharing” in rural areas. Nevertheless, there is research potential to define what is really causing the spread of “Foodsharing” in rural areas to fail.