Oecotrophologie · Facility Management (OEF)
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The concern for the environment among European consumers is growing and in the future the need for sustainable shopping is expected to increase. Through transparent on-packaging communication with consumers, organic producers have the opportunity to show attributes of organic production system and build a strong market position. The aim of the study was to analyse voluntary packaging information on organic milk from four European markets in the context of organic food quality, i.e., Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Poland. More specifically, the textual content of 106 organic milk packages was analysed and voluntary information on each package was categorized according to process- and product-related organic milk attributes. The assortment and content of voluntary packaging information varied across the four countries. The largest number of products was found on the German market (37) and the smallest on the Polish market (14). Dutch milk had the greatest amount of voluntary information on animal welfare, product locality, environmental protection, quality confirmation, naturalness and nutritional value. German milk had the most information on enjoyment and conditions of processing, while the Italian milk on the social perspective. The products available on the Polish market had the least voluntary information. Pasteurized organic milk had noticeably more information about organic quality attributes than micro filtrated and UHT milk.
Association between cardiovascular risk factors and erectile dysfunction – a population-based study
(2006)
Abstract This study extends previous research evaluating the association between the CHIP intervention, change in body weight, and change in psychological health. A randomized controlled health intervention study lasting 4 wk. was used with 348 participants from metropolitan Rockford, Illinois; ages ranged from 24 to 81 yr. Participants were assessed at baseline, 6 wk., and 6 mo. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and three selected psychosocial measures from the SF-36 Health Survey were used. Significantly greater decreases in Body Mass Index (BMI) occurred after 6 wk. and 6 mo. follow-up for the intervention group compared with the control group, with greater decreases for participants in the overweight and obese categories. Significantly greater improvements were observed in BDI scores, role-emotional and social functioning, and mental health throughout follow-up for the intervention group. The greater the decrease in BMI through 6 wk., the better the chance of improved BDI score, role-emotional score, social functioning score, and mental health score, with odds ratios of 1.3 to 1.9. Similar results occurred through 6 mo., except the mental health variable became nonsignificant. These results indicate that the CHIP intervention significantly improved psychological health for at least six months afterwards, in part through its influence on lowering BMI.
Actual initiatives to cultivate more sustainable modes of consumption have not materialized and there are indications that an implementation gap is becoming manifest.
Research must begin to systemically integrate initiatives to promote improvements in quality of life, to distinguish long-term structural consumption trends, and to identify the social mechanisms and cultural aspects of consumer behavior and household decision making.
Improving residential energy efficiency is widely recognized as one of the best strategies for reducing energy demand, combating climate change and increasing security of energy supply. However, progress has been slow to date due to a number of market and behavioural barriers that have not been adequately addressed by energy efficiency policies and programmes.
This study is based on updated findings of the European Futures for Energy Efficiency Project that responds to the EU Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-15 theme 'Secure, clean and efficient energy'. This article draws on five case studies from selected European countries - Finland, Italy, Hungary, Spain, and the UK - and evaluates recent energy efficiency developments in terms of indicators, private initiatives, and policy measures in the residential sector. Our analysis shows that the UK government has implemented a better range of policies, coupled with initiatives from the private sector, aimed at improving energy efficiency. However, its existing conditions appear to be more problematic than the other countries. On the other hand, the lack of effective and targeted policies in Finland resulted in increased energy consumption, while in Hungary, Spain and Italy some interesting initiatives, especially in terms of financial and fiscal incentives, have been found.
The Coronary Health Improvement Project (CHIP) for Lowering and Improving Psychological Health
(2011)
This study extends previous research evaluating the association between the CHIP intervention, change in body weight, and change in psychological health. A randomized controlled health intervention study lasting 4 wk. was used with 348 participants from metropolitan Rockford, Illinois; ages ranged from 24 to 81 yr. Participants were assessed at baseline, 6 wk., and 6 mo. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and three selected psychosocial measures from the SF-36 Health Survey were used. Significantly greater decreases in Body Mass Index (BMI) occurred after 6 wk. and 6 mo. follow-up for the intervention group compared with the control group, with greater decreases for participants in the overweight and obese categories. Significantly greater improvements were observed in BDI scores, role-emotional and social functioning, and mental health throughout follow-up for the intervention group. The greater the decrease in BMI through 6 wk., the better the chance of improved BDI score, role-emotional score, social functioning score, and mental health score, with odds ratios of 1.3 to 1.9. Similar results occurred through 6 mo., except the mental health variable became nonsignificant. These results indicate that the CHIP intervention significantly improved psychological health for at least six months afterwards, in part through its influence on lowering BMI.
Sustainability is a central issue in food business and food retailing since approximately 3 years (See Teitscheid 2011). Various influential factors are significant for this development. On the one hand consumers choices are changing (See GFK et al. 2009). They are looking for natural, good and healthy food; they have a longing for home and an intact world (See iSuN 2010). The image of a highly efficient, but often ruthless industrial food production in regards to mankind and nature is not appropriate here. On the other hand, raw materials are scarce and, thus, very valuable. Bad harvests, mostly interpreted as a result of climate change, worldwide increasing consumption and the production of food in favor of energy production instead of nutritional aims, lead to a re-evaluation of agricultural resources and their producers. Within this context, food industry is searching for new forms of cooperation and partnership along the value chain in order to secure their resource basis. In the light of their significant environmental impact, an increasing number of companies also start to work on the environmental assessment and optimization of their products and value chains. Therefore they need employees with valid knowledge and competencies in sustainability and resources management. Based on this demand, the master's program "Sustainable Services and Nutrition Management" started in 2009 in the University of Applied Sciences in Münster (Germany)1. This text reports about how the topic of resource efficiency in food/nutrition industry has been integrated within the study program, which projects have been worked on and what experience could be gained from them.
Putting it all together: how can organic support sustainable diets and translate it into practice?
(2015)
The Organic Diet Project. Im Rahmen des FQH Workshop "Organic Diet", Newbury, UK, 23-24.04.2015
(2015)
It is increasingly obvious that for safeguarding environmental sustainability, eco‐efficiency measures will need to be complemented by sufficiency, in particular by strong sustainable consumption. The Theory of Planned Behaviour TPB and Social Practice Theory SPT offer different views on consumer behaviour, and on ways to change it. This paper briefly describes the challenges, discusses the applicability of both theories and their meaningfulness for policy recommendations.
We suggest an approach combining results of both bodies of theory, complemented by ideas from political economy, to substantiate the Prism of Sustainable Consumption we introduce as a heuristic sufficiency policy tool. It is useful to identify affordability criteria for change in each dimension, as the basis for deriving suggestions for effective policy interventions. We conclude
that (i) effective interventions are possible, (ii) they have to address several dimensions of affordability simultaneously, and (iii) the sufficiency policy space prism can be a useful tool in structuring planned interventions.
The objective of this paper is to identify those areas of consumption, in which private households can make significant contributions to environmental sustainability, and to present a transparent and comprehensive set of indicators for them. The analysis of the environmental impacts of households focuses on consumption clusters that permit to depict different life spheres of private households. Two criteria guided the investigation of the relevance of these clusters: · The significance of the consumption cluster, and · The potential influence of households. Resource consumption was chosen as simplified, but reliable representation of environmental pressure dynamics. Growing resource consumption goes together with growing environmental pressures and vice versa, although not necessarily proportionally. The key resources analysed are energy and material consumption, and land use. Based on this analysis, three priority fields for action by households were identified: construction and housing, food/nutrition and transport (in this order). All other consumption clusters can be considered environmentally marginal, providing combined saving potentials of less than 10% of the total resource consumption. Finally, from description of the respective roles of actors based on anecdotal evidence a semi-quantitative "actor matrix" is presented indicating the relative influence of different actors per consumption cluster.
Unsustainable consumption patterns of the North (or rather of the global affluent consumers class) have been identified by Agenda 21 as one of the key driving forces behind the unsustainable development. However, neither accounting based on the system of national accounts SNA nor household economics provide the proper instruments to assess the environmental impact of household decision making. Eco-efficiency assessments as familiar in the business sector provide no appropriate tool for households. As an alternative an environmental space based assessment scheme is suggested covering the major pressures on the environment caused by household decisions. The methodology is used twice: once to analyse the environmental relevance of the main activity clusters of household consumption and once to identify the dominant acts of consumption within each cluster. The latter provide the basis for deriving environmental performance indicators. A rough analysis of household influence potentials permits to identify housing, eating and mobility as the three priority fields for action for minimising the environmental impact of households. Extending the influence analysis actor matrixes are derived allocating influence and thus responsibility for environmental pressures to different groups of economic agents.
BACKGROUND Poor nutritional quality of complementary foods often limits growth. Animal source foods, such as milk or meat, are often unaffordable. Local affordable alternatives are needed. OBJECTIVE We evaluate the efficacy of 2 newly developed, rice-based complementary food products: WinFood (WF) with small fish and edible spiders and WinFood-Lite (WF-L) fortified with small fish, against 2 existing fortified corn-soy blend products, CSB+ (purely plant based) and CSB++ (8% dried skimmed milk). DESIGN In total, 419 infants aged 6 mo were enrolled in this randomized, single-blinded study for 9 mo, designed primarily to assess increments in fat-free mass by a deuterium dilution technique and change in plasma ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor. Secondary endpoints were changes in anthropometric variables, including knee-heel length. Data were analyzed by the intention-to-treat approach. RESULTS There was no difference in fat-free mass increment in WF or WF-L compared with CSB+ [WF: +0.04 kg (95% CI: -0.20, 0.28 kg); WF-L: +0.14 kg (95% CI: -0.10, 0.38 kg)] or CSB++ [WF: -0.03 kg (95% CI: -0.27, 0.21 kg); WF-L: +0.07 kg (95% CI: -0.18, 0.31 kg)] and no effect on iron status. The 1.7-mm (95% CI: -0.1, 3.5 mm) greater increase in knee-heel length in WF-L than in CSB+ was not significant. CONCLUSIONS No difference was found between the locally produced products (WF and WF-L) and the CSBs. Micronutrient fortification may be necessary, and small fish may be an affordable alternative to milk to improve complementary foods. The dietary role of edible spiders needs to be further explored. This trial was registered at controlled-trials.com as ISRCTN19918531.
In the last decade, in many European Countries more and more measures have been initiated aiming at the prevention of food losses and wastes along the entire value chain. In order to evaluate or monitor such important measures it is crucial to obtain quantitative information on generated food waste amounts, subsequently enabling the quantitative evaluation of the measure’s outcomes and efficiency. Currently there is a paucity of quantitative information, particularly on food losses that are directly generated during harvesting processes. Up to date, no method is available or standardised aiming at the in-situ or on-site quantification of food losses during harvest. Using the example of the potato harvest, this study presents a practical approach for determining potato losses. To test the applicability of the developed method, on-site measurements were conducted directly on the field at five different locations in Austria and Germany. Our method enables the quantification of food losses based on defined areas along the harvested potato rows, where the analyser manually collects potatoes during their harvest. Hereby, two types of potato losses needs to be considered: non-harvested, under-sized potatoes that remain under the earth and the harvested ones, which are rejected on-site because of quality requirements regarding their size, shape, and state of health. Our study shows that between 1 and 9% of field losses (based on yield potential) can be generated during the potato harvest. In future, this method may be the basis for standardised protocols in order to be able to derive cultivar-specific benchmarks and, consequently, to develop measures for preventing food losses. In general, more case studies and evidence-based ground-up measurements on other cultivars and for other regions are needed focusing on the on-site quantification of post-harvest losses.
As a salutogenic concept, “consumption corridors” aims to support what is necessary for sustainable wellbeing to be achieved in relation to the Earth system, with a deep consideration for justice and equity. Living in consumption corridors is a representation of everyday life whereby people live within limits, so that all people – now and in the future – can access what is needed to live a good life. In this special issue, a series of scholars and practitioners have come together to further develop the concept, engage with its ethodological implications, and relate it to consumption domains and policy implications. We begin by introducing how the concept emerged, in relation to the complexity of grappling with the societal transformations required for achieving more sustainable forms of consumption. We then present the different contributions, which demonstrate the importance of considering both maximum and minimum consumption standards, the relevance of human-need theories, as well as the difference between achieving wellbeing and the means necessary for doing so. We conclude by opening up to areas that merit further deliberation: how to relate consumption corridors to everyday-life dynamics, but also to the critical question of power relations at play in implementing consumption corridors.
Social Sustainability through Social Interaction—A National Survey on Community Gardens in Germany
(2018)
Regulations and Requirements
(2011)