Cafeteria Food and Carbon Footprints

Nils Handler, you are an environmental economist and recently started leading the new  Decarb UZH strategic project. What’s this project about?

Handler: It’s about decarbonizing the university. The focus is on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sources at UZH. We are building on a decade of sustainability work done by the Sustainability Hub and are working closely with them for this project. Climate neutrality is enjoying higher priority and additional funding thanks to Decarb UZH. We’ve launched four provisional task forces focused on food service, air travel, energy and waste. They’re examining measures in line with the priorities previously defined in the sustainability strategy.  

The University of Zurich is committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. Where do we currently stand?

Handler: We’ve already made significant progress. UZH has succeeded in substantially reducing CO2 emissions in key areas like business air travel. Positive developments can also be seen in food services, such as the number of meatless meals, and building energy efficiency has been improved as well. But there’s still a lot of work to do if we want to be climate neutral by 2030. The project’s first step is to identify more areas with reduction potential that have been overlooked or received little attention so far. 

How do you plan to find these areas with untapped potential?

Handler: We are currently analyzing where emissions are highest – both directly at UZH and from the products and services we purchase – and which of these emissions we can directly impact. Our goal should be focusing on emission-lowering measures that can be implemented with minimal additional costs and without impacting the work of UZH staff and students. In the past we often just estimated the potential for CO2 reduction. AI advances now allow for smarter data collection and analysis, which we can use to reshape our priorities. This allows us to unlock efficiency gains by automating manual processes and reducing administrative effort. Take material procurement, for example: UZH purchases a lot of goods like lab materials. The question is what kinds of products they are and whether there are alternatives that differ in terms of manufacturing and transport-related emissions. Currently, our procurement platform doesn’t provide the information you’d need to make those kinds of decisions.

Are you now using AI tools to check the entire university for additional emission reduction potential?

Handler: That’s one possible approach that we're currently exploring. We also want to look more closely at the topic of artificial intelligence itself. Currently, emissions from AI are skyrocketing globally. That's why we want to use a model to analyze how AI use at the university contributes to emissions. Making predictions is extremely difficult, however, since both how AI is used as well as the tech itself are developing rapidly.

How could we reduce emissions from AI?

Handler: One possible way could be to reduce the carbon footprint of an AI query by optimizing the underlying software. Cloud computing could be another strategy for reducing AI energy use. However, the energy used at UZH is already very green, and the most energy-intensive computing tasks are handled by highly specialized external providers like the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre or CERN.

You mentioned the provisional task forces for energy, air travel, food services and waste. What are these groups supposed to achieve?

Handler: The task forces should identify as many potential efficiency improvements and decarbonization opportunities as possible in their respective areas and come up with specific action steps that we can take. The goal is to find where we can cut emissions the most with minimal effort. We’ve got a lot of key stakeholders involved in this process. For example, for food services we’re working with representatives from ZFV who operate the cafeterias and from the UZH Canteen Council as well as with student representatives and nutrition scientists. They're working together to analyze potential solutions and how well they can be implemented at UZH. Each task force works in this way to identify a range of possible steps that can be taken. The project steering committee, which is made up of university leaders and faculty deans, will make the final call on which measures to put in place and how to do it. Our job is to provide the best possible scientific basis for their decision-making.

How can individuals in the UZH community make a contribution to achieving our carbon neutrality goals?

Handler: Integrating sustainability into our daily routines is key, whether it’s reorganizing offices, choosing how to travel to academic conferences, selecting lab materials or picking meals in the cafeteria. For all these decisions, we should consider their emissions impact so we can choose the lowest-emission option. One of several measures from the food services task force is that the “Butcher” menu will be vegetarian on Mondays starting in spring semester 2025. Meals outside of the main menu selections can still offer meat options on this day. An interdisciplinary team of UZH researchers will evaluate the impact of this change. We should view sustainability not just as a challenge, but also as an opportunity, something worth contributing to because it helps keeps the world livable over the long term. We’re also open to hearing innovative suggestions on how we can further reduce emissions from students and staff who aren’t yet officially involved in the project.

Project Decarb UZH is scheduled to run until October 2026. What do you hope to achieve by then?

Handler: I want to reduce as many emissions as possible or pave the way for reducing them in the future. I hope UZH can establish itself as an institutional role model, demonstrating how emission reduction can be compatible with excellent research and teaching and a vibrant campus life.