Studying the emotional impact of eco-feedback on food waste in university canteens : a case study of LUT
Alam, S M Jahangir (2026)
Diplomityö
2026
School of Engineering Science, Tietotekniikka
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20260619100546
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe20260619100546
Tiivistelmä
Food waste in university canteens poses a sustainability challenge. It contributes to environmental degradation as well as to the waste of valuable resources. Eco-feedback systems have been instrumental in promoting pro-environmental behaviour in other domains, but they have been very rarely utilized in institutional food services. Their potentials remain unexplored in generating emotional responses of the food consumers to influence the reduction of food waste in university canteens.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of eco-feedback systems with different designs in influencing emotional responses of the LUT Buffet customers, mainly students of LUT University, and subsequently influence their food selection pattern and food waste habit at the LUT Buffet. The study examines four types of eco-feedback designs: numerical, visual/infographics, comparative, and story-based narrative.
This study employed a sequential mixed-methods approach. In the first phase, it conducted an online survey for four different eco-feedback designs randomly assigned to 55 participants. The second phase was a semi-structured interview conducted with 10 participants chosen from the online survey participants.
According to the study findings, all four designs performed well to generate positive emotional responses to encourage food waste reduction. However, the Visual design received the highest score in effectiveness (M = 4.85) in the quantitative survey and was well supported by the interviewees in the qualitative phase. Second to Visual design, Narrative design of eco-feedback systems also performed significantly. The study recommends a future study to use a hybrid design with a combination of visual and narrative designs in reducing food waste in the LUT Buffet and other canteens at LUT University.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of eco-feedback systems with different designs in influencing emotional responses of the LUT Buffet customers, mainly students of LUT University, and subsequently influence their food selection pattern and food waste habit at the LUT Buffet. The study examines four types of eco-feedback designs: numerical, visual/infographics, comparative, and story-based narrative.
This study employed a sequential mixed-methods approach. In the first phase, it conducted an online survey for four different eco-feedback designs randomly assigned to 55 participants. The second phase was a semi-structured interview conducted with 10 participants chosen from the online survey participants.
According to the study findings, all four designs performed well to generate positive emotional responses to encourage food waste reduction. However, the Visual design received the highest score in effectiveness (M = 4.85) in the quantitative survey and was well supported by the interviewees in the qualitative phase. Second to Visual design, Narrative design of eco-feedback systems also performed significantly. The study recommends a future study to use a hybrid design with a combination of visual and narrative designs in reducing food waste in the LUT Buffet and other canteens at LUT University.