The initiation project is part of the “Sustainability Innovation Campus.” Under the motto “Transformations for city regions of the future – climate protection, resource conservation & well-being,” researchers from the University of Freiburg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), together with food system stakeholders, aim to contribute to the sustainable development of society – taking into account economic aspects, the common good, and social justice.

Conventional food supply in communal catering (CC) for administrations, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, and companies is prone to crisis and contributes to climate change, health impairments, and socio-economic inequalities (Höijer et al., 2020; Tregear et al., 2022).

The aim of the project is to contribute to climate protection, resource conservation, fair and supportive operating structures along supply chains and in communal catering facilities and to support a plant-based, wholesome, and healthy diet.

To this end, an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach will be used to

1. review existing studies on the CC sector and the food system in the Upper Rhine region as well as tried and tested instruments for sustainability assessment and management,
2. activate an existing network of CC institutions, supply chain companies, and governance organizations from the innovation ecosystem,
3. evaluate up to eight selected CC facilities in Freiburg and Karlsruhe (including surrounding areas) in terms of sustainability and identify their innovation needs,
4. strategically plan selected political, technical, entrepreneurial, and behavioral innovations in the entire innovation ecosystem,
5. carry out up to eight pilot projects coordinated and orchestrated between Freiburg and Karlsruhe to test selected innovations and evaluate them using a comparative methodology,
6. explore the transferability of such innovations to the majority of CC institutions through the innovation ecosystem in the Upper Rhine region in a transfer study,
7. develop a strategy paper on how such projects with a similar methodology but a different thematic focus can achieve long-term and system-wide effects.

The project aims at political, technical, and entrepreneurial innovations to make agriculture, food processing, regional logistics, and distribution sustainable, renewable, regenerative, and cooperative. In addition, behavioral innovations are to support a plant-based diet and prevent food waste. In the long term, it is about system innovations that ensure the security of supply in the Upper Rhine region with healthy, regional, organic, climate- and resource-friendly, and affordable food and contribute to sustainable urban-rural relationships.

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