Climate-Efficient School Kitchens and Plant-Powered Pupils | Germany

2018 Lighthouse Activity

One of the most powerful solutions to addressing climate change lies in the food we eat. Reaching out to young people may well be the most sustainable way of doing that. That is why ProVeg International and IZT have launched two respective interventions.

First, together with the German health insurance provider BKK ProVita, ProVeg launched Aktion Pflanzen-Power (Plant-Powered Pupils) to educate and empower children to make healthier food choices.

Second, KEEKS (Climate Efficient School Canteens), initiated and managed by IZT (Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment), formed a joint project with ProVeg, ifeu, Wuppertal Institut, Netzwerk e.V., Faktor 10, funded by BMU (German Federal Ministry for the Environment) as part of the National Climate Initiative. KEEKS has analyzed and quantified 22 different measures (e.g. food, investments, behavior of kitchen personnel, and waste) that could reduce greenhouse gases. Through their "Measures-Map", KEEKS trains kitchen staff, trainee chefs, and caterers in ways to prepare sustainable, low-cost, healthy meals in public schools. This includes not only the use of energy-saving kitchen appliances, but also the use of ingredients like plant-based, low-carbon-footprint alternatives to meat.

Both projects aim to scale up the availability of healthy and climate-friendly food options in German schools and beyond.

Key facts

Over 23,000 students from 36 schools across Germany have been reached through Aktion Pflanzen-Power. KEEKS has presented the idea of climate efficient schools in 120 vocational trainings, schools, and nutrition events.
KEEKS has shown that 40% of greenhouse gases could be saved by reducing climate inefficient food and waste and promoting energy efficient behavior in kitchens and investments in energy saving technology.
140,000 students were offered a plant-based school lunch for a week in cooperation with catering company Sodexo;
12,500 kitchen staff have been reached through training programmes;
If 23,000 children continue to choose plant-based lunches (even only once a week on average for a year), it represents a potential 1,076,400 kg reduction in their combined carbon footprint.

The problem

When it comes to food, the highest carbon footprint comes from the meat industry. In addition, overconsumption of meat is a public health risk, and processed meat was classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a Group 1 carcinogen alongside tobacco and alcohol.

The global food system represents up to 30% of the world's carbon footprint, half of which is from meat production and animal agriculture alone. This represents 14.5% of global carbon emissions, surpassing the entire global transport sector - all the cars, trucks, trains, ships, and planes combined.

The solution

Therefore, reducing meat consumption and eating plant-based food on a regular basis reduces greenhouse gas emissions and is one key factor in helping to achieve the objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Another key factor is implementing energy efficient technologies for cooking, dish washing, cooling, and freezing.

There are over 2.6 million full-time students entitled to school lunches across Germany in tens of thousands of canteens. Within the framework of the KEEKS project, IZT, ProVeg, Wuppertal Institute, Faktor 10 and Netzwerk e.v. work with approximately 1,000 trainees in vocational classes or staff of canteens to provide healthy, sustainable and climate-friendly food.

With their “Aktion Pflanzen-Power” (Plant-Powered Pupils) program, ProVeg educates and empowers children to make healthier food choices, entering the classroom through interactive sessions on the importance of a sustainable and healthy diet, and their ability as individuals to mitigate climate change through healthy food choices.

The potential impact of more sustainable food policies is immense. According to research by Dr. Helen Harwatt, presented at COP 23 in Bonn, Germany, if a highly-industrialised country like the United States switched its beef consumption to an equivalent amount of protein from beans, that single change could account for up to 74% of the country’s climate targets for 2020. The KEEKS project has shown that typical school kitchens can save around 20% of their energy consumption if they change their behaviour using the technical equipment or if they invest in energy efficient technologies.

Helping the planet

According to researchers at the University of Oxford, a global switch to diets that rely less on meat and more on fruit and vegetables could save up to eight million lives by 2050, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 67%, and lead to savings of up to 31 trillion US dollars from avoided climate change damage and public health costs. By reaching out to educational institutions and children, awareness can be increased at a very early stage to ensure that future generations have all the tools and knowledge they need to make more sustainable and healthy choices. By educating and empowering children to make healthier food choices, and working with canteens at schools and universities, the two interventions Aktion-Pflanzen Power and KEEKS contribute directly to climate change mitigation by reducing the carbon footprint of the food on people's plates. By reducing the demand for animal products (Aktion Pflanzen-Power) or using 22 measures to reduce greenhouse gases and energy consumption (KEEKS), they can help mitigate climate change and decrease freshwater consumption, land degradation, and threats to biodiversity caused by intensive livestock farming.

Helping people

Childhood obesity is among the most urgent health challenges in Germany, affecting 1.9 million children under the age of five. Children suffering from obesity have a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Obesity is also an independent risk factor for premature death.

Empowering young people to choose healthy, plant-based food is also important for their long-term health, by reducing their risk of developing diabetes, certain cancers, and heart disease.

This not only improves the general health level of the community, but also decreases the burden on local and, if scaled, national healthcare systems. Plus, through cooperation with the health insurance company BKK ProVita, participants in these programs and people within the community who adopt a plant-based diet receive a discount on their health insurance premiums, a testament to the lowered risk of disease and potential healthcare costs associated with such food choices.

Secondly, for trainee chefs and catering staff, gaining knowledge on making healthy, sustainable, and cost-effective meals through training programs helps establish them as first movers and gives them advantages in the job market. An increased demand for fruits, vegetables, nuts, and beans by school kitchens and catering firms is also a boost to farmers and rural economies.

Finally, reducing their kitchens' carbon footprint, KEEKS helps to meet the German government's goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2020 and by 80-90% by2050.

Spillover effect

These two projects have begun adapting their interventions to apply them in kindergartens and vocational colleges in Germany, as well as replicating and adapting their activities for schools in initial overseas trials in the United Kingdom. ProVeg UK launched the School Plates Programme in June 2018. IZT has launched “KEEKS International” in Poland.

With no technological obstacles to replication, the success of internationalising these efforts around the world rests with ensuring an empowering, inclusive approach that engages students and promotes traditional plant-based recipes (Aktion Pflanzenpower) and greenhouse gas-efficiency (KEEKS).