Developing sustainable restaurant services as part of the Sustainable Campus vision at Aalto University SUSTAINABLE DESIGN CASE PROJECT

Ilkka Kelaranta, Mridu Mehta, Pinja Heininen

NUDGING FOR CHANGE

Our Focus... To enable the restaurants

to serve more eco-friendly food... To encourage customers

to consume more eco-friendly food...Discourage consumer food waste

PART 1: BUILDING A ROADMAP...................Slide 6-19Role of restaurants and food in environmental sustainability studied and ideas offered.

PART 2: TEST CASE.....................................Slide 20-30Two Weeks One Plate campaign pilot tested for 2 weeks to reduce consumer food waste in campus restaurant. RESULT: upto 20% reduction in food waste

This presentation has 2 parts

Skip to part 2 for interesting results (and my favorite part of the project :)

DESIGN PROCESS: week 1- 4

Information Collection

Problem Definition, Ideation, Roadmap

Environmental impact in Finland Percentage of consumption per person per day

Environmental impacts:· Climate change· Primary energy consumption· Ground-level ozone formation· Acidification· Eutrophication of waters

The remaining 52.5% includes:· Clothing· Home furnishings, appliances and accessories· Health· Hotels, cafes and restaurants· Education· Refreshments and culture

Source: The Eco-Benchmark Project (SYKE, MTT, BSc, FGFRI), Nissinen et al. 2007. Material: Mäenpää, 2005 / as a method of national input-output method

FOOD

20.5%

HOUSING AND ENERGY

15%TRANSPORTATION

12%

• Nordic Climate Festival• HENVI Seminar• Other restaurants’

initiatives: Katri-Antell in Dipoli, Unicafe, Fazer Amica biowaste, Lahti schools

• Food MIPS report• Low carbon footprint meal

report by Jenni Saarelmaa

• Stakeholder mapping and prioritization

• Designing Behaviour through polarity scenario

• Future visions• Identifying benefits and

barriers• Ideas organised into

a Roadmap

Meeting Important Stakeholders

• Meri Löyttyniemi, Sustainability Planner, Aalto University

• Restaurant Advisory Board

• Continuous feedback from Katri-Antell chief at TaiK, Hanna Rosenberg

Presentation to Board Test Case Implemented Test Case Results & Feedback to Customers

Aalto

Sustainable

Restaurant

Services

A Roadmap

SUSTAINABLE DESIGN CASE PROJECT

Pinja Heininen, Ilkka Kelaranta, Mridu Mehta

In collaboration with• Positive response from the Restaurant Board

• Pilot test for 2 weeks to reduce consumer food waste in Katri-Antell

• Results of the test weeks were shared during the test period

• The final result was also displayed at the end of the test

DESIGN PROCESS: week 5-7

PART 1Building a Roadmap for Aalto Sustainable Restaurant Services

Food has the highest environmental impact in terms of CO2 emissions in Finland

The choices made by restaurants have a huge affect all the way from the primary production to the consumers plate. Therefore they have a really important role in making the food and its production chain more sustainable.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

Environmental impact in Finland Percentage of consumption per person per day

Environmental impacts:· Climate change· Primary energy consumption· Ground-level ozone formation· Acidification· Eutrophication of waters

The remaining 52.5% includes:· Clothing· Home furnishings, appliances and accessories· Health· Hotels, cafes and restaurants· Education· Refreshments and culture

Source: The Eco-Benchmark Project (SYKE, MTT, BSc, FGFRI), Nissinen et al. 2007. Material: Mäenpää, 2005 / as a method of national input-output method

FOOD

20.5%

HOUSING AND ENERGY

15%TRANSPORTATION

12%

Comparison of Environmental Impact of Food Items in terms of CO2 EmissionsAll values in kg CO2 -ekv./kg

MEAT DAIRY PRODUCTS EDIBLE OILS VEGETABLES MAIN COURSE ADDITIONS FRUITS

CHEESE13,0

BUTTER6,5

OLIVE OIL1,2

RAPESEED OIL0,8

BANANA0,5

ORANGE0,3

APPLE0,1

MELON1,1

BEEF20.5

PORK3,8

CHICKEN2,9

SALMON1,3

EGG2,2

WHOLE MILK1,1

MILK1,0

PALM OIL0,3

GREENHOUSE CUCUMBER

4,7

GREENHOUSESALAD

3,7

GREENHOUSETOMATO

2,7

CARROT0,1

CUCUMBER2,3

OUTDOOR SALAD

0,4

TOMATO0,8

POTATO0,1

RICE2,9

BARLEY2,0

WHOLEGRAIN BARLEY

1,1

WHEAT0,4

MAIZE0,4

RYE0,3

OATS0,4

Source: Vahahiilinenateria - Low carbon footprint meal report by Jenni Saarelma

Finland

76 kgChina

46 kgIndia

4 kgU.S

120 kg

Consumption of meat per person/year

Source: FAO, State of Food and Agriculture Report 2009

Europe North America & Ocenia

Industrialized Asia

SubSahara Africa

North Africa, West &

Central Asia

South & Southeast

Asia

Latin America

Per Capita Food Losses and Waste kg/yr

Consumer

Production to retailing

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Source FAO (2011): Global food losses and food waste

IDEATION: Designing behaviour - polarity scenario

Shift from animal farming to natural

farming

Eating meat becomes rare

Lesser CO2-emissions, mostly because of

lower livestock

Concentration on other environmental

issues

Less space needed

More space to grow natural food

Social equality - people eat same food

all over the world

People eating environmentally

healthy food/people eating

less meat

Healthier people

Reduced spending on healthcare

New species can be developed

Less producers, higher prices

Less energy needed

IDEATION: Future Visions

... Economical barriers: Organic and local food is currently costly - LUXURY LABEL

...Customer attitudes and lifestyle

...Misleading information about eco-food in media

... Negative mainstream image and reputation of ecological food, especially vegetarian food

... Different policies followed by the various restaurant companies on campus

BARRIERS to eco-friendly food consumption

Benefits

For Restaurants... Monetary savings for the restaurant services

· Savings on price of vegetarian food over non-vegetarian food · Optimised supply chain

... Image and reputation for the restaurant services · Vegetarian food has a good image with women · Good PR for restaurants

BENEFITS

Benefits

For Customers and Society...Healthy and slow lifestyle for consumers

...Positive thinking

...Reduced Environmental impacts (The total life cycle environmental impacts)-Climate change (greenhouse gas emissions)-Eutrophication-Acidification-Land use, biodiversity-Ecotoxicity

...Increasing knowledge amongst customers and restaurants

BENEFITS

Roadmap for Aalto Sustainable Restaurant Services 2020Lays out all our ideas on a timeline. Ideas are mapped starting with the easiest to implement and those that appear to be more easily acceptable by customers

Toolkit for restaurants For other campus restaurants to replicate suggested roadmap and test case

SOLUTIONS

SOLUTION: Roadmap for Aalto Sustainable Restaurant Services

Recycling; Waste Management Optimised Logistics, Efficient use of resources Reduce beef, rice and greenhouse salads consumption

Encourage competition amongst restaurants for ‘greener’ results

2020

Targets achieved for each

Two Weeks One Plate campaign + info awareness Plate model Awareness about ‘true costs’: Show CO2 footprint of food Serve only fair trade coffee Serve all food in the same line on the buffet table Serve previous days’ food first Environmental pass Online platform to connect campus restaurants Raise the price of environmentally straining food

Theme days: Veggie day, Surprise Menu day etc.

Tastier seasonal and vegetarian food by serving fresh herbs

Herbs grown in Otaniemi urban gardens - served in restaurant

Aalto environmental policy/standards

Feedback system - connect better with customers

Modifying meat recipes to reduce meat consumption- e.g adding soy to bolognese

Invest in seasonal food Remove Greenhouse salads

Eco-food Pop-up restaurant

Marketing diets e.g after christmas

Calories counted food

Reward vegetarians with lower prices

Shadow pricing achieved

Major percentage of food is seasonal

Completely remove beef and rice

Minimize food waste to nil

2012

SOLUTION: Toolkit for restaurants

Aalto Kestävä

Kampus

Työkalupakki

Ravintolat

PART 2Test Case: Two Weeks One Plate Campaign

Please find attachedNudging for Change, a paper I wrote for the course Creating the Mindset of Sustainable Societies in 2012. It discusses nudging as a behaviour change strategy using the Two Weeks One Plate campaign as a succesful example.

PROBLEM Students were throwing away too much food at the end of meals

INSIGHT: Consumers loading too much food on their plates? Restaurant offered consumers the choice of two plates – a smaller plate for salad and a bigger one for the main course.

IDEA Take away the salad plates and see what happens.

• Pilot test for 2 weeks with support from Katri-Antell Restaurant

• Customers were expected to manage their meal with the one big plate provided

• Campaign material developed to nudge customers to participate: - Promotional stand - Interactive feedback corner - Information leaflet - Feedback Poster

2 Stands at strategic locations in the restaurant during the pilot test to announce the campaign

TWO WEEKS ONEPLATE

PARTICIPATE!Our target is to reduce the amount of food thrown away at the end of every meal. The small salad plate

is taken away for two weeks.

We are going to monitor the amount of food waste generated

at our restaurant. If our, customers can manage with one plate, we believe it will reduce the

amount of food thrown away at the end of every meal.

Aalto Sustainable Campus

www.aalto.fi /en/about/sustainability

Interactive Feedback Corner

Used to collect customer feedback. Also a tool to increase customer engagement with the campaign by giving them a place to express heir opinion using post-its.

The corner also tracked the amount of food waste recorded at the end of every day for all to see.

Supporting Leaflet./kg

CO2 ComparisonMeal effect

GREENHOUSE SALADBEEF MEAT

RICE

3,5525 kg CO2 -ekv.

CARROT, ORANGE, APPLEPOTATOESSALMON

0,179 kg CO2 -ekv.

All above food items are 1 kg each.

EGG2,2

WHOLE MILK1,1

MILK1,0

BEEF20.5

PORK3,8

CHICKEN2,9

SALMON1,3

CHEESE13,0

BUTTER6,5

OLIVE OIL1,2

RAPESEED OIL0,8

PALM OIL0,3

GREENHOUSE CUCUMBER

4,7

GREENHOUSESALAD

3,7

GREENHOUSETOMATO

2,7

CARROT0,1

CUCUMBER2,3

TOMATO0,8

OUTDOOR SALAD

0,4

WHEAT0,4

MAIZE0,4

RYE0,3

OATS0,4

POTATO0,1

RICE2,9

BARLEY2,0

WHOLEGRAIN BARLEY

1,1

BANANA0,5

ORANGE0,3

APPLE0,1

MELON1,1

MEA

TDA

IRY

PROD

UCTS

EDIB

LE O

ILS

VEGE

TABL

ESM

AIN

COUR

SE A

DDIT

ION

SFR

UITS

All values in kg CO2-ekv./kgSource: VÄHÄHIILINEN ATERIA

Comparison of Environmental Impact of Food in terms of CO2 Emissions

Read

me.txt

Ru

oa

n C

O2

-va

iku

tuk

setLeaflet placed next to the

buffet table aimed at nudging customers to pick more eco-friendly food on their plates

Did this reduce the amount of food you threw away at the end of every meal?

Feedback Corner Response by Customers

Katri-Antell SodexoYes 25.8% 20%No 51% 66%Maybe 23.2% 14%

Katri-Antell SodexoYes 65.5% 39%No 25% 54%Maybe 9.5% 6%

Can you manage without a salad plate?

The campaign was conducted by Meri, the Sustainability Planner at Aalto University 6 months later in another restaurant Sodexo, Otaniemi and the results are included here.

We asked:

Results & Conclusions

Amount of Food Waste decreased on an average (as compared to before the test weeks):Katri-Antell: 20%Sodexo: 15.25%

The response of customers on the feedback corner indicates that they do not believe that taking away the salad plate reduces the amount of food waste. Our measurements of food waste thrown at the end of every meal however show otherwise. For this reason, we decided to declare the results at the end of the test weeks as a poster (as shown on the next slide) to let customers know that their participation did make a significant difference

AALTO SUSTAINABLE CAMPUS

KIITOS OSALLISTUMISESTA!

Kaksi Viikkoa, Yksi Lautanen - kampanjan aikana vähensitte ruokajätteen määrää 20%. Yhden vuoden aikana yli 3000 litraa täysin syötävää ruokaa pelastuisi jäteastialta.

Vähensitte myös astianpesupro- sessissa tarvittavaa vettä, sähköä, pesuainetta ja tilan käyttöä.

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!

During the Two Weeks One Plate Campaign, you reduced the amount of consumer food waste by 20%. Over one years time, this would prevent over 3000 ltrs of edible food reaching the dustbin!

In the dishwashing process, you also reduced the amount of water, electrical energy, detergent and space used.

Poster informing customers that the amount of consumer food waste decreased during the pilot test weeks.

The campaign gathered positive response from most customers.Unfortunately, at the end of the campaign the restaurant decided to bring the salad plates back because they did not want to alienate the customers that did not approve. However, we observed that conscientious customers continued to use one plate only even after the salad plates were reintroduced. The restaurant has on its own initiative discouraged the use of salad plates by placing them after the big plates (it was the opposite before).

Project Follow Up

• Project well recieved by the Restaurant Board of the University• Project presented at Design in Glocal Transformation Seminar

in EnsAD 2012• Project presented at Nordic Sustainable Campus Network

(NSCN) Seminar 2013• Two Weeks One Plate campaign also tested totally in 3 campus

cafeterias till date by the University• 1 restaurant does not use the salad plates till date (Dec 2013)

THANK YOU

Please find attachedNudging for Change, a paper I wrote for the course

Creating the Mindset of Sustainable Societies in 2012.It discusses nudging as a behaviour change strategy using

the Two Weeks One Plate campaign as a succesful example.