Choice between the food flavour or eco-footprints
In today’s time it is imperative to contribute to the 17 sustainable development goals (SDG) as laid down by the UN. Among all other SDGs, SDG no. 12 is focused on Responsible production and consumption. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 emphases on achieving sustainable consumption and production patterns. SDG 12 aims to reduce waste generation, promote efficient resource use, and encourage sustainable practices across industries.
The food industry has a significant impact on our planet’s resources, making it a key area for addressing SDG 12. The food sector accounts for around 22 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, largely from the conversion of forests into farmland.
The food industry’s unsustainable consumption strains the environment, leading to resource depletion, pollution, and excessive waste. Consumers lack awareness and tools for making sustainable choices.
The initiative to spread awareness is not the sole responsibility of the industries or government, however, the academic community plays an important role in spreading this awareness among the stakeholders, consumers, and the youth.
At The NorthCap University, students are made aware about the sustainable practices and the importance of sustainable development goals through the certificate programs like, “Sustainable Development”. The university has designed three special courses, namely, Introduction to sustainability, Society and sustainability and Pathways to sustainability for the students from varied disciplines. NCU provides a platform where students can apply their specialized domain knowledge to solve a problem linked with sustainability.
For this identified problem on knowing the eco-footprints of what you eat, a student team from Full Stack Development have worked on a mobile application and named it as Swaasth (meaning “wellbeing” in Hindi), that empowers consumers to make eco-conscious food choices with a focus on reducing their overall carbon footprint. The application provides insights of carbon footprint calculation of a particular meal, provides eco-friendly material that can be used in the recipe and also provides sustainability tips.
The application is highly appropriate in increasing consumer awareness, promoting the eco-friendly products of food industry and offers a good education tool that can be used in schools to spread awareness about the footprints of various recipes.
The NorthCap University is contributing to spreading the awareness about sustainable development goals and making the people eco-conscious through the deployment of such application by the students.
Authored By
Dr. Vaishali Sahu
Associate Professor & Head
Department of Multidisciplinary Engineering
Dy. Director, Internal Quality Assurance Cell
Linkedin URL:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-vaishali-sahu-97550511a/
Broad Research Areas (Maximum 5)
Sustainable resource management, Environmental Engineering, Waste Management