With four individual projects, the Studierendenwerk convinces the jury
The 2019 Environmental Award of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate, endowed with 3,000 euros, goes to the Vorderpfalz Student Union. The four individual projects on the topic of "Sustainability on everyone's lips" convinced the jury. Environment Minister Ulrike Höfken honored the projects under the motto: "Sustainable nutrition is climate protection" at the award ceremony in Mainz.
"Sustainability is not a goal - sustainability is a path," Andreas Dubiel, Head of University Catering at the Studierendenwerk, is convinced and explains the motivation for participating in the competition. "In 2018, we began to scrutinize our own role as purchaser, customer and consumer even more critically and, together with strong partners, sought solutions to make our purchasing more transparent, customer-oriented and, ultimately, more sustainable."
Last Tuesday, the 2018 Rhineland-Palatinate Environmental Award was presented to the Studierendenwerk delegation by Environment Minister Ulrike Höfken at a ceremony. With this award, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate honored the Studierendenwerk's commitment to a sustainable cycle and the associated scope of the projects carried out and the network that has been created.
Under the motto "Sustainability on everyone's lips" are the four projects with which the Studierendenwerk took the road to more sustainability with mile boots in 2018:
Too good for the garbage can
Artificial intelligence for sustainable merchandise management: Together with other student unions and the company delicious data as an innovation partner, a system has been developed that takes external factors into account and thus makes planning with regard to the number of food guests much more accurate. Because the most sustainable food is still the food that is eaten and not thrown away!
The algorithm of delicious data takes into account a variety of factors, such as the weather, the sales of the food last time and semester breaks, and from this it creates a forecast of what the sales of the food might be. For example, no one eats pork knuckles in 40-degree weather - a cold gazpacho is more popular.
This allows the university catering team at Studierendenwerk Vorderpfalz to change the menu and offer customers more suitable alternatives or adjust production quantities. This has already significantly reduced the amount of good food being thrown away.
The egg system: more animal welfare through sustainable purchasing
Together with the environmental group of the University of Landau and the Ökologische Tierzucht gGmbH, the Studierendenwerk Vorderpfalz organized the "Day for Animal Welfare" on the Landau campus on July 2, 2019.
At lunchtime, the Studierendenwerk served burgers with meat from the rearing of brother cockerels in the campus canteen. In the evening, the environmental group presented the successful film reportage "MeetYourFarmer - The Egg System" at the UniKino. Afterwards, we held a panel discussion with experts on the topic of animal welfare in the supply chain.
Together, the three partners took a critical look at the issue of animal welfare at the Mensa. What began as an initiative of the environmental group in 2018 has now set stones rolling among buyers at the student unions throughout southern Germany. 12 student unions - responsible for over 400,000 students - have completely switched their egg purchasing to at least free-range as a first step. This is a good example of how customers can make a difference, and an example of what a critical buyer can achieve. The documentation of this project can be found on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghXtjWNa7OA& t=6s
Disposable out - recup in
The third project is dedicated to reducing coffee-to-go waste. 250,000 servings of hot beverages pass over the counters of all seven Studierendenwerk cafeterias every year. Almost 30% of these are still in the form of disposable coffee-to-go cups. Since last year, disposable cups have been a thing of the past in Landau and Ludwigshafen. As of September 9 of this year, this will apply to all cafeterias of the Studierendenwerk - in Landau, Germersheim, Worms and Ludwigshafen.
The impetus came from a customer survey: 94% of all customers preferred reusable to disposable. This was a major logistical change for the Studierendenwerk, because now the cups have to be rinsed that were previously just collected as trash on campus.
However, the sales figures have remained stable, i.e., the customers bear the additional expense of the deposit system. We have found that sustainability is always a bit more inconvenient than throwing away, and if customers do not share this inconvenience, even the best reusable system cannot be maintained as a catering operation.
When it comes to the reusable system, Studierendenwerk has chosen to partner with Recup. It is the system with the largest presence in the country and the concept is well thought out.
Fair Cafeteria - Fair Prices
Every hot beverage and tea that goes over the counters in the Studierendenwerk cafeterias is 100% Fairtrade. From 2018 to today in 2019, for example, that's 52,958 servings of fair powder coffee - that adds up. In addition, there are fair trade soft drinks and ice creams.
The decision is made at the checkout, because the most sustainable product must be removed from the range if customers do not buy it. Studierendenwerk is constantly reviewing the assortment, because the goal is to add more fair products to the range.
That's not so easy in a large-scale operation with prices of 2.70 euros for a five-ingredient lunch menu. Every meal for students is produced at a subsidized price - there is little financial leeway for extras when it comes to purchasing.
And sustainability is usually more expensive. Perhaps sustainable products could also be promoted with higher meal subsidies.
Studierendenwerk is convinced that sustainability always needs a bit of a jump start until customers realize with their shopping habits that in the long run, despite the higher prices, they will eat better this way and do something for the environment at the same time. Sustainability starts much more with the customer than with the supplier. What the customer puts in his or her cart determines 1:1 what will be on the store shelves the next time he or she shops. Sustainability starts with everyone.
Get the link to the ministry's press release here:
https://mueef.rlp.de/de/pressemeldungen/detail/news/News/detail/hoefken-nachhaltige-ernaehrung-ist-klimaschutz/?no_cache=1
Contact:
Studierendenwerk Vorderpfalz
Thomas Mosthaf
Head of Communications Department
Fortstraße 7 / 76829 Landau
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