The sustainability of our planet is a challenge that requires us to change the way we live and consume. There is a key place where the professionals of the immediate future are being trained: the university. What can it do to promote a profound change in perspective and a sustainable revolution? The answer is: a lot.
The university is a space where we can act in three essential areas: teaching, research, and the transfer of knowledge to the business world and society. If we want to bring about a real shift in consciousness, we must instill the seeds of sustainability in students, conduct research with that goal in mind, and be able to transfer our findings to businesses and, with them, to society.
In this regard, there are experiences like the ones we recently developed at the Public University of Navarra, in this case in the agri-food industry, aimed at transforming mental frameworks in favor of a more sustainable world.
NEMOS Project: European Collaboration
Planting the seed of sustainability means placing it at the center of any product or food design, ensuring that the user or consumer takes it into account as much as quality or design. Along these lines, the European NEMOS project (co-funded by the European Union and involving five European universities) is an innovative service-learning experience to foster sustainability competencies.
Thanks to NEMOS, university students from these European centers, including the Public University of Navarra, conduct research to provide real and sustainable solutions to practical cases proposed by small food production or agribusiness companies, various NGOs, consumer associations, organic product producers, fair trade organizations, food banks, and more.
Reuse paper
One of the practical cases involved collaboration with the Pamplona City Council’s Tajo de Encuadernación y Serigrafía (Bookbinding and Screen Printing Workshop) , with whose professionals the students of the UPNA Food Design and Development course developed plans for the degradation of the material they use for bookbinding: the paper can be reused for food packaging.
In addition to the case studies, organic producers with experience in sustainability in the sector shared their experiences with the students and sought their input on specific problems. For example, the zero-waste organic olive oil company BIOSASUN , in Allo, Navarra, received proposals for alternative uses for byproducts and waste after each visit.
All projects are based on the circular economy and aim to achieve zero waste in industry through new ways of designing, producing, and utilizing.
BIRBIZI: from agricultural waste to drinkable juices
In this project, we focused on the idea of finding new applications for underutilized waste and byproducts in the agri-food industry. The goal was to develop new foods that would improve health and quality of life and promote sustainability.
Through the BIRBIZI ( “rebirth” ) project, funded by the Government of Navarre, we designed drinkable juices with antioxidant properties using the aqueous juice of olives. In this way, using “waste” such as residual whey from cheese production, fruit peels from organic juice production, and the residual aqueous juice of olives with a high concentration of polyphenols (antioxidant substances obtained from olive milling water and pruning leaves), we managed to create drinkable juices with multiple properties such as preventing and delaying aging and, in turn, creating zero-waste industries.
On the occasion of the European Researchers’ Night, we organized “Tastings with Science” of BIRBIZI products (four sessions with 20 people each) and collected the surveys. The whey with orange cream was the highest rated (5.7 out of 7). These “conscious foods” are currently being marketed.
The price of doing nothing
Sustainability isn’t just a buzzword: being sustainable means being able to endure over time. For the circular economy to become a reality, we need to change the way we approach many everyday activities, especially in the field of industrial production.
It’s not about small tweaks, but about profound changes: consuming more respectfully, truly recycling, designing products that use every particle. Encouraging the search for a second life for every element. This real awareness can be fostered from universities and also, why not, from schools: from the grassroots, from the very beginning. Because the more we unite, the more we will be. The planet is at stake.
Author Bio: María J. Cantalejo Díez is Professor of Food Technology at the Public University of Navarra
Tags: sustainability
