Your eating behaviour is strongly influenced by habits, social norms and environmental factors. Think about how often you choose meat, how much food you throw away and whether you tend to buy something because it is on sale. Within Dream Team Food Choices, we investigate these behavioural mechanisms - and use that knowledge to reduce food waste and CO₂ emissions.
The impact of psychology on eating behaviour
Why do people cling to old eating habits, even when they know they are harmful to their health or the environment? And how can we break this resistance? Using insights from psychology - such as nudging, habit change and social influence - we design strategies that really work. That way, we make sustainable choices the easy choice.
Behaviour change
Meat production has a huge ecological footprint, yet consumption remains high. Why? Many people experience resistance to changing their diet - it touches on identity, tradition and taste preferences. Within our team, we want to explore how to motivate people to be more conscious about meat through smart communication and positive behavioural management.
Social topic points
Food is more than nutrition - it is culture, community and habit. This is why we tackle food waste and sustainable choices from multiple angles:
- Social influence: How can friends, family and colleagues contribute to more sustainable behaviour?
- Awareness & education: What really works to turn knowledge into action?
- Behavioural psychology: How do you adapt environments to make sustainable behaviour self-evident?
Sustainable mindset principles: Food Waste
In the Netherlands, each person wastes an average of 33 kilos of food and 65 litres of drink a year. Even on the VU campus, a lot of good food goes to waste. Meanwhile, millions of people worldwide suffer from hunger - and food waste is a major cause of climate change. Every meal thrown away means wasted energy, water, labour - and above all: unnecessary CO₂ emissions. It is time for change. And it starts here, on our campus.
Who we are
VU Dream Team Food Choices is an interdisciplinary VU Dream Team of students with a shared mission: to reduce food waste and encourage sustainable eating behaviour. We combine scientific insights with creative solutions - with sustainability as our core value.
Last year, we focused on direct impact as well as behavioural change:
- Food rescue via WhatsApp: after events, we rescue leftover food and share it via a campus-wide group. More than 75 kilos of food have already been saved from the trash - and thus from unnecessary emissions.
- Food exchange point @ VU Green Office: students and staff can leave unused food behind so it doesn't go to waste.
- Kitchens under the microscope: next year we will tackle food waste at the source - in the VU kitchens themselves.
Do you want to contribute to a more sustainable world and develop yourself in practice? Then join Dream Team Food Choices! As a team member, you will have the opportunity to:
- Make a direct impact on CO₂ emissions and food waste.
- Apply your academic knowledge to a visible, urgent problem.
- Collaborate with students from different disciplines.
- Broaden your network - inside and outside VU.
- Gain skills in sustainability, behaviour, communication and leadership.
Register
Are you curious, inquisitive, entrepreneurial and do you want to make a real impact? Then send an e-mail to dreamteams@vu.nl and let us know why you want to be part of our team. And let us know what you study and what year you are in. We will then contact you.
Ambassador Meike Morren
Meike Morren is a university lecturer in Marketing at VU University Amsterdam. Her research focuses on how to encourage consumers to behave more sustainably. She is scientific coordinator of Sustainability at the Amsterdam Sustainability Office, which supports others in conducting interdisciplinary research.
This team is linked to the VU profile theme Science for Sustainability