Researchers and operators in the sector met today in Florence to discuss the topic of sustainability in university catering on the occasion of the conference “What the hell! – university catering that fights for the environment” held in the Santa Apollonia Auditorium and promoted by the Regional Agency for the Right to University Education of Tuscany and the National Association of Bodies for the Right to University Education ( ANDISU), in which representatives of the bodies for the Right to University Education from all over Italy, of the Universities, RUS and of associations operating in the field of “sustainability” participated.
During the day, various experiences from the sector were compared to evaluate how significant the impact of the production and delivery processes of meals in university canteens is on the environment and how much a widespread change in eating habits with consumption greater than plant foods.
With a daily catchment area of over two million students, teachers, technical and administrative staff, Italian university canteens can help reduce the effect that a certain way of consuming food has on the ecosystem.
From the interventions it emerged that the introduction of a 100% vegetable alternative between first and second courses, the elimination of animal derivatives from side dishes can lead to a saving of 1.2 kg CO2 eq. for each user. Considering that in Italy on average around 21 million meals are provided to university students every year, a joint intervention on the national territory that courageously applies these criteria in its food offer would lead to a reduction of around 25,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent to the emissions of around 5,000 trips by car from Rome to Copenhagen. Unfortunately, from the national data presented, only one university canteen in two in Italy offers the possibility of consuming a plant-based second course on the menu, when it is scientifically proven that to reduce emissions by 4.7% per year, protein consumption must be halved. animals by 2050.
From this point of view, Tuscany is proving to be at the forefront of investments in the sector with a view to the ecological transition with a systemic approach of the DSU Company in the development of menus and administration, with appreciation at a national level. In fact, the DSU Toscana obtained the Compraverde Buygreen 2024 award, Mensa Verde 2024 section, just yesterday in Rome, after having received the special mention last year from the same organization that deals with Green Procurement policies, projects, goods and services , public and private. Not least, at the beginning of 2024, the first three positions reached by some canteens of the DSU Toscana in the Ranking of university catering in Italy report Canteens for the Climate – promoted by theessere animali association which allowed the DSU Toscana company to be classified in band A among the most virtuous ones.
The event was therefore organized with the aim of making the representatives of the Right to Education bodies present in Florence aware of good practices and identifying shared rules for managing the entire process of providing meals. The morning speeches moderated by the journalist Antonino Palumbo were the setting for the afternoon work session aimed at establishing a multidisciplinary technical working group responsible for drawing up the national guidelines: from the drafting of recipes to the control of procurement.
ANDISU President Alessandro Ciro Sciretti opened the conference and made the conclusions of the morning session, reiterating that “the future destination can only be the sustainable transition also in university catering which requires the creation of a national collaboration network with a multidisciplinary working group , composed of experts in the regional bodies for the right to education, responsible for drawing up a document that defines the rules to be adopted in all university canteens in Italy”
The President of the DSU Toscana Marco Del Medico echoed his words, convinced that “acting on sustainability is not a whim and cannot just be empty propaganda, it is a duty to be pursued with concrete actions to be implemented in the services provided, comparing the positive experiences and finding solutions that can help the transition process.”
Source: Press Office
