RUN-EU student challenge: finding solutions to reduce food waste in a local community
RUN-EU Innhoton brings together students from HAMK and upper secondary school of Forssa, Finland, to find solutions to reduce food waste in the region.
Reducing food waste is a crucial step toward achieving sustainable development goals, as it helps conserve resources, reduce emissions, and promote fairer resource distribution.
Food waste is a problem for many reasons. Environmental harm is linked to the waste of natural resources involved in food production, transportation, and storage. When food is thrown away, these resources are wasted. Economic losses occur at both individual and broader scales. The average household could save significant amounts by reducing food waste. On a larger scale, food waste causes financial losses throughout the food supply chain, from farmers to retailers. Ethical issues relate to global hunger and food security. Social challenges of food waste reflect systemic issues, such as market structures that produce surpluses or inefficiencies in logistics and distribution.
Students innovate solutions to meet the needs of local communities
These challenges will be addressed on February 12 at HAMK’s campus in Forssa, Finland. Students from Forssa upper secondary school and HAMK will participate in mixed teams to brainstorm ways to reduce food waste in Forssa. The results will be pitched at the FRUSH 2025 event in April, where feedback will be provided by teachers from our RUN-EU partner institution NHL Stenden in the Netherlands and representatives from the City of Forssa.
Taking place in all eight RUN-EU higher education institutions, the RUN-EU Innhoton events challenge students from secondary and RUN-EU institutions to work together to develop innovative solutions to identified problems. Each challenge is based on the needs of local communities, but will also be considered from a global perspective.
RUN European University
We are part of RUN European University, which brings together eight European higher education institutions from seven countries committed to a common vision.
