Green Gown Awards 2020 - London School of Economics & Political Science - Finalist

Nudge LSE to plant-based options 

Recipe to nudge behaviours towards plant-based options. 

Serves:  

A 38% reduction in meat-based dishes since 2018 

Near tripled numbers of plant-based dished sold, from 16,916 to 61,147  

At least 20 tonnes carbon emissions saved per year as a result. 

Cooking time:  

Slow cook since 2014 – high heat in 2018. 

Steps:  

1) Work up an appetite for plant-based menus through engagement. 

2) Open LSE’s first plant-based campus café in Sept 2018.  

3) Refresh your catering outlets with a simple menu of nudges and priority positioning, inspired by our top chefs (academics) and their research on influencing choice behaviour. 

And that is just the starter! LSE Catering’s repertoire includes a Sustainability Action Plan with further recipes to address food waste, single-use plastics, and supply chains. The icing on the cake? We have increased total sales by 10%. 

Top 3 learnings:

1. Subtle nudges are a great first step to test behaviour change actions in catering, but a bold action (of a new café) definitely made an important impact. 
2. Bring identity and increase awareness of your actions or programme with a signature place, branding and/or marketing materials. 
3. Be mindful of your different audiences and actively engage with them, we were surprised how much people connect emotionally with this subject! 

Videos

• Video #1 (click to hide)