Facility Management Eva Leydekkers wins FMN Student Award 2024 for her thesis on The Power of Protein
News
Last week our alumna student Eva Leydekkers won the FMN Student Award. Every year Facility Management Netherlands (FMN) presents the FMN Student Awards 2024. This recurring event aims to highlight the work of emerging talent and connect nominees with our network.
Influence of caterers in sustainable food consumption
Eva's Bachelor thesis emphasises the need for sustainable food consumption because of the major environmental impact of food production, especially animal products. The Dutch government aims for a balanced consumption of 50% vegetable and 50% animal proteins by 2030, with an ambition to shift this to 60% vegetable. Caterers play an important role in this protein transition by influencing consumers with more sustainable meal options and interventions that encourage plant-based choices.
The Power of Protein
The research focuses on how caterers can effectively promote the protein transition through behavioural interventions among the target group, in this case employees of Breda University of Applied Sciences (BUas). The research shows that several factors influence consumer behaviour and that a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective.
Therefore, a multifaceted strategy consisting of five steps is recommended:
1. Identifying behaviour to be changed
2. Understanding the target group
3. Designing effective interventions
4. Versatile implementation
5. Impact evaluation.
Feedback from the jury:
‘Eva's research focuses innovatively and specifically on a valuable direction within sustainability. It is nice to see how Eva directly highlights the various issues in the research. In addition, the roadmap she drew up is clear and easy to follow, which increases its practical applicability.
Eva clearly emphasised that a ‘one size fits all’ approach does not work in this research and gave substantiated reasons why this is the case. This shows her critical eye and eye for nuance and customisation. The research can be rolled out well with this insight.’
