How to promote sustainable vertical farming? Towards a common science-based definitional framework

The current storytelling of IVF products proposed by commercial indoor vertical farms (CIVFs) is scattered and lacks consistent scoping. This hampers the establishment of a systematic set of features allowing consumers to recognise and choose sustainable IVF products. To fill this gap, the current study aims to develop a definitional framework for sustainable IVF. This framework has the potential to support the exploration of different communication strategies and to inform a common understanding of the sustainability of CIVFs, contributing to advancing both consumer awareness and market positioning. To this aim, a scoping review is performed to explore current perspectives on IVF sustainability and build a coherent understanding through a definitional framework. Then, the framework is tested on some selected European CIVFs’ storytelling to understand the focal points of their marketing strategies.