Project

Idea to Impact – Project Greenbites

What is Food Sustainability and How does it impact our lives?

Food sustainability involves cultivating, producing, and consuming food in ways that promote long-term environmental health, social equity, and economic viability. It encompasses practices that minimize environmental impact, support biodiversity, and ensure fair and ethical treatment of workers throughout the food supply chain. Embracing food sustainability has a profound impact on our lives. It influences the quality and nutritional value of the food we eat, as sustainable practices often prioritize organic farming, reduce the use of harmful pesticides, and promote responsible water management. Additionally, food sustainability addresses issues such as food waste, encouraging us to minimize our ecological footprint by making informed choices about consumption and disposal. By supporting local and sustainable food systems, individuals contribute to healthier ecosystems, stronger communities, and a more resilient global food supply. Ultimately, food sustainability is not just a concept; it is a critical approach that shapes our diets, health, and the well-being of the planet.

 

OUR CHALLENGE 

How to help the Facility Services (FS) at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) raise awareness, engage, and motivate local entrepreneurs with sustainability best practices in their food businesses?

Project Background

This project builds on the previous semester’s challenge to “create a monitoring solution so that FS can measure and track the CO2 footprint of food and drinks”. In that project, the team sought to understand purchase data from various suppliers (Cirfood, Maas, Meinders and local entrepreneurs). The idea was to make the data entry uniform and extract information to calculate CO2.
The Facility Services (FS) Food & Drink aims to enable the transition to sustainable food as part of the sustainability program and ambitions of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA). Topics include tackling food waste, the transition of protein to vegan food offerings, and food security, as well as working with more local and small-scale suppliers. 

About Faculty Services

Facility Services (FS) is responsible for services to support education and research at the UvA and HvA.

These services include:

  1. Educational facilities: educational logistics, teaching rooms, management and arranging furniture, and audiovisual equipment;

2. Facilities in and around the buildings: food & drink, cleaning, security, room management, minor maintenance, bicycle and grounds management, mail & repro;

3. Accommodation: building maintenance, room management, emergency response coordination, security, permits, relocations and rebuilding/renovation projects;

4. Purchasing: ordering, purchasing and tendering;

5. Facility matters related to events.

Our questions in focus:

A. What are the jobs, pains, gains, and needs of entrepreneurs in their daily work?
B. How to educate, generate awareness, and trigger action by local entrepreneurs toward the green food transition

Target groups/users:

  • FS Food & Drink 
  • Suppliers at HvA & UvA Campuses
  • UvA/HvA Management, reporting of sustainability goals and progress.

Here, we introduce you to our team, Greenbites! We are a group of 7 members – Aria Marshall, Debalina Mukherjee, Jean Gilles Niyitanga, Alexander Plet, George Adegoke, Karàn Kokabisaghi along with our Transformation Owner, Namratha Aroor.

Final Project video