{"id":2143,"date":"2016-10-18T13:11:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T11:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=60037"},"modified":"2026-01-20T10:00:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:00:42","slug":"lots-of-people-act-very-defensively-when-you-try-to-touch-their-meat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/10\/18\/lots-of-people-act-very-defensively-when-you-try-to-touch-their-meat\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lots of people act very defensively when you try to touch their meat’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Het team van de hub: Nada van Schouwenburg, Sarah Achahbar en Eva Rood.<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>

The first full year proved to be bit of a learning curve for the Erasmus Sustainability Hub. A tough lesson came with their Meat-free Monday campaign when they found out the EUR community get a tad defensive when you \u201ctry to touch their meat.\u201d EM spoke with Hub Co-founder Eva Rood and Operations Student Assistant Nada van Schouwenburg about the highs and lows of the past year, and what they\u2019ve got planned going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span><\/i>We were inspired by the success of the Green Office in Maastricht,\u201d explains Eva Rood, co-founder of the Sustainability Hub. The Hub aims\u00a0to inspire the community at EUR adopt greener, more sustainable practices, both on and off the campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you study business here or learn about the Environment in Wageningen, we\u2019ll still all be faced with the same challenges in ten or twenty years\u2019 time,\u201d says Eva, referring to the global economic, social and environmental sustainability challenges highlighted by the UN. \u201cWe want to prepare people regardless. With our students, there\u2019s a good chance that they\u2019ll end up working in business \u2013 but they can still make a difference there!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Polar Bear<\/h3>
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The polar bear.<\/span><\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

Aside from raising awareness and connecting likeminded individuals, the Hub has run a number of more tangible projects since opening its doors in January 2015. You may recall the Warm Sweater Day, where you might have spotted a Polar Bear wandering around campus, or perhaps you\u2019ve noticed people sipping coffee from re-useable mugs in lectures. In fact, it\u2019s these mugs \u2013 the Erasmugs \u2013 which Eva and Operations Student Assistant Nada van Schouwenburg champion as the most successful of the Hub\u2019s projects. Following a pilot of the re-useable Erasmugs, the campaign has now been passed on to the campus caterers to run independent of the Hub.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe spoke to the campus caterers and although they wanted to sell the mugs, they were concerned about taking the risk and purchasing them first,\u201d Eva explains. \u201cWe purchased the first 400 to carry the risk and asked them to sell the mugs on our behalf, whilst offering discounts to see if there was any interest.\u201d This batch of Erasmugs sold out in six weeks, which Eva says was \u201can overwhelming success.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Without return-use numbers available, it\u2019s hard to gauge whether the Erasmug project has indeed managed to reduce waste on campus. Eva admits that many were purchased as gifts for friends and family and even as corporate incentives. Yet she remains adamant that they\u2019ve made a difference and will consider asking caterers for hard evidence of their use in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meat-free Monday \u2018too negative\u2019<\/h3>\n\t
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\n\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\u2018It caused quite a fierce discussion about whether universities should be involved in what individuals are eating\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t–<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEva Rood\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption>\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Not all their projects were well received. Take Meat-free Monday, for example, for which the Hub received considerable backlash. After seeing the extremely negative responses to the campaign at other universities, the Hub decided to try a more subtle approach at EUR. \u201cWe tried to introduce Meat-free Monday by innocently hanging up posters in the food court advising of alternatives,\u201d says Eva, adding that \u201cit caused quite a fierce discussion about whether universities should be involved in what people are eating.\u201d Nada explains that they were shocked by the intensity of the responses to the campaign. \u201cLots of people act very defensively when you try to touch their meat,\u201d she laughs. \u201cBut now we\u2019ve worked out that perhaps Meat-free Monday was too negative, because you\u2019re telling people what not to do, rather than simply promoting a more positive lifestyle.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Nada says they hope to adopt this more positive approach through the ambitious Food Lab project. The Food Lab, which is still in the planning phase, aims to educate the EUR community on sustainable plant-based food options through cooking demos and workshops. Rather surprisingly, although the university approves of the project and its intent, funding is not necessarily allocated for the endeavour. This means that the Hub and its network are seeking alternative sources of finance \u2013 including corporate sponsors, who in return will enjoy perks such as employee cooking demos and outings to the Lab.<\/span><\/p>\n

More about the Hub<\/h2>