Green Deal Duurzame Zorg: what it asks about food waste

The Green Deal Duurzame Zorg, the Dutch care sector's sustainability agreement, asks care providers to map their food waste and reduce it as far as possible. Its successor was signed on 9 October 2026 and runs until the end of 2030. The commitment on food waste is in it word for word. What exactly does it say, how does it connect to the Milieuthermometer Zorg, and how do you make food waste reportable to your board?

#From Green Deal 3.0 to "Samen verder"

The Green Deal Samen werken aan duurzame zorg (C-238), known in the sector as Green Deal Duurzame Zorg 3.0, was signed on 4 November 2022 and runs until 31 October 2026. Around 720 organisations signed up.

On 9 October 2026, thirteen sector associations signed the Green Deal Duurzame Zorg 2027-2030 "Samen verder" ("Moving on together"). They include ActiZ (elderly care), NVZ (hospitals), UMCNL (university medical centres), VGN (disability care), de Nederlandse ggz (mental healthcare), MPZ and ZN (health insurers). The new deal runs from 1 November 2026 to 31 December 2030 and is formally an extension of the existing one.

The Ministry of Health (VWS) no longer signs as a party. According to the parties, it does remain the connecting link for sustainability and climate policy in healthcare.

For your organisation, one sentence in the summary matters most: anyone who signed Green Deal 3.0 in principle remains a participant in the new deal, unless they explicitly say they want to leave. If you signed, your commitments simply continue.

#What the Green Deal says about food waste

The commitment sits under the theme "Working circularly and sparingly with raw materials and materials". In Green Deal 3.0 it is article 5, paragraph 2, under j. The new deal has exactly the same text in article 5, paragraph 2, under i:

"Care providers map their existing food waste in healthcare and make every effort to reduce it as far as possible. At locations where clients and support staff cook for themselves, the focus is on information and awareness." (our translation)

Those two sentences hold three commitments.

1. Mapping. You need to know how much you waste. That calls for figures from your own organisation, not an estimate based on national figures.
2. Reducing as far as possible. The Green Deal itself names no percentage. It is a best-efforts commitment: you show that you are working on it.
3. A distinction by location. Where clients and staff cook for themselves, as in small-scale living, the Green Deal puts the emphasis on information and awareness.

It is not enforceable. Both versions state in article 14 that compliance with the agreements "is not enforceable in law". Its weight lies in how it is used: the Milieuthermometer Zorg refers to it. And according to the summary, the new deal puts more emphasis on "monitoring results based on available data" and on "demonstrable impact".

#Healthy food, protein and a new waste target

Food waste doesn't stand apart from the rest. Under the theme "Promoting health", care providers agree to work on healthy, varied and sustainable food and to build it into their purchasing policy. The eating-environment guidelines of the Dutch Nutrition Centre (Voedingscentrum) serve as the benchmark.

Then there is the protein transition. For food for staff and visitors, care providers aim for 40% animal and 60% plant protein by 2030 at the latest. Green Deal 3.0 named 50/50 in 2026 as an interim step. For patients and clients, care providers do "what is medically responsible".

New is a waste target that also covers food. The parties aim to cut the total weight of waste from healthcare by 15% by the end of 2030 compared with 2024. Every kilo of food you no longer throw away counts towards it.

#The Milieuthermometer Zorg makes the commitment measurable

You won't find a percentage for food waste in the Green Deal. The Milieuthermometer Zorg, the Dutch environmental certification for care organisations set up by the Milieuplatform Zorgsector (MPZ), does name one. That is where the Green Deal becomes concrete.

• Requirement 7.1 asks for a plan for sustainable food and catering with a baseline measurement and concrete, measurable goals for the protein transition, reducing food waste and sustainable purchasing. You evaluate the action plan every year. For silver and gold, the plan must align with the goals of Green Deal Duurzame Zorg 3.0, as the standard currently puts it.
• Requirement 7.3 asks you to measure and record kitchen waste, plate waste and banqueting at least once a year. Within two years of certification, waste may be at most 20% of purchased weight. For gold, prepared meals may additionally be at most 15%. The requirement is mandatory for silver and gold and applies to central catering: a central kitchen cooking for more than 30 clients, or centrally purchased convenience meals.

So what the Green Deal calls "mapping" becomes, in the Milieuthermometer, a measurement with a fixed denominator: purchased weight. For the practical side, see Milieuthermometer Zorg: how to measure food waste for requirement 7.3.

#The national and European context

The Green Deal is part of a bigger goal. The Netherlands wants to halve food waste by 2030 compared with 2015, in line with UN goal SDG 12.3. In 2023 total food waste was 2,271 kilotonnes, 17% less than in 2015. In September 2025 the minister wrote that reaching the goal is "under pressure" and that the budget for the approach is shrinking (parliamentary paper 31 532, no. 299). The national monitor has no breakdown for healthcare (parliamentary questions 2022-2023, no. 1345).

Since 2025 the EU has binding targets in the revised Waste Framework Directive (Directive (EU) 2025/1892). By the end of 2030, waste in processing and manufacturing must be 10% lower. At retail and consumption, including restaurants, food services and households, it must be 30% lower per capita. The baseline is the 2021 to 2023 average.

These targets apply to Member States, not to individual kitchens. They create no European duty to measure at your care location.

#The CSRD doesn't apply to most care organisations

After the Omnibus package, the EU's CSRD reporting duty only applies to companies with more than 1,000 employees and more than €450 million in turnover (Tanso, 2026). Large hospitals and university medical centres can exceed those thresholds; whether the CSRD then applies also depends on the legal form. For most Dutch care organisations, the Green Deal and the Milieuthermometer are the real reasons to measure and report food waste.

#How to make food waste reportable to the board

A best-efforts commitment only gains value once you can show what you did and what it achieved. These are the building blocks.

1. Pick one definition. Use the same denominator as the Milieuthermometer: waste as a percentage of purchased weight. Then one number serves the Green Deal, requirement 7.3 and your annual report.
2. Set the scope. Which locations cook centrally and are measured? Which cook for themselves and get an awareness plan? Write it down, so nobody later asks why a location is missing.
3. Do a baseline measurement. MPZ advises measuring for at least two weeks, at several points in the process. Without a starting point you can't show progress. See Food waste baseline measurement: a step-by-step plan for care.
4. Make the goal SMART. MPZ gives "10 percent less food waste every year" as an example. Tie the goal to the plan from requirement 7.1, with an owner and a timeline.
5. Report per location, ward and meal moment. A single figure for the whole organisation tells the board little about where things go wrong. The breakdown shows where measures work.
6. Repeat the same way. A second measurement set up differently can't be compared with the first. Measuring more often than the minimum of once a year gives you a more reliable trend.

The wider picture, with cost, climate and malnutrition, is in Food waste in healthcare: what it costs and how to measure it. The questions board members ask most often are in the FAQ.

#How Waste Warrior Monitor supports your Green Deal reporting

Waste Warrior Monitor turns the Green Deal's "mapping" into a routine part of the day. After the meal, staff use the app to photograph what comes back: plates, serving dishes and pans. The AI estimates how many grams are on each photo and which ingredients they are. Staff can correct each ingredient. Drinks and other leftovers you enter yourself in grams, so everything you throw away is counted.

For each measurement you link the purchases: with a scanned delivery note, with dishes entered by hand or through bulk purchase import (CSV import). The dashboard then shows waste as a percentage of purchased weight, the same denominator the Milieuthermometer uses. You see it per ward and per meal moment, with the weekly trend and the Milieuthermometer levels as an indicator. Waste Warrior doesn't certify; that remains the job of the certification body.

"Wat ontbreekt" (what's missing) shows which meals haven't been measured yet. With automatic report generation (PDF report) you record the figures for your plan and your board. Your data stays in the EU.

Want to see how that fits your Green Deal commitments? Take a look at Waste Warrior Monitor or book a demo.