Hospitals play a vital role in promoting health, yet they are significant contributors to the climate crisis. In the Netherlands, the healthcare sector is responsible for 7% of national CO₂ emissions and 13% of raw material use, figures that call for urgent change. Food systems within hospitals offer a powerful but often overlooked opportunity for impact. With nearly 40% of hospital food wasted and a heavy reliance on animal-based meals, improving sustainability here means addressing not only health, but also climate goals.

Sophia Children’s Hospital, part of Erasmus MC and the largest children’s hospital in the Netherlands, sits at the heart of this challenge. Tasked with feeding vulnerable patients under strict dietary regulations, the hospital faces a complex balancing act: how to make meals healthier and more sustainable without compromising care or comfort? Misconceptions around plant-based diets and deeply rooted food habits add further resistance to change. Still, if sustainability can succeed in a children’s hospital, where the stakes are high and the context is complicated, it sets a powerful precedent for the rest of the healthcare sector.

This project emerged from the shared ambition of a paediatrician and a sustainable design researcher, both advocating for a food system that serves the needs of patients today while protecting the well-being of future generations. While policies and research promote protein transition and food waste reduction, there remains a crucial gap between vision and implementation. That is where design can help. This project set out with a clear goal:

‘‘Designing an intervention that increases acceptance of more sustainable food choices for patients at Sophia Children’s Hospital.’’

To reach this goal, the project explored the sustainability challenges hospitals face, the nuances of children’s food experiences and the specific ambitions of Erasmus MC’s new food system, based on the pillars of health, experience and sustainability. Along the way, systemic issues emerged: the low priority for sustainability, a lack of personalisation for children’s meals, aversion to restrictions, the poor perception of hospital meals, the underutilisation of the influence of nutritional assistants and, most notably, the absence of feedback mechanisms. Without ways to listen, measure and respond to patient input, efforts to improve the food system remain disconnected from those they aim to serve.

This insight became the turning point of the project. The focus was refined to designing a structured feedback system; a foundation for continuous learning and improvement, grounded in empathy and participation.

Through stakeholder input and iterative design, the project delivered two complementary tools to bring this idea to life:
1. System Maps that identify and visualise gaps in feedback flows across the key aspects taste, meal offerings, portion size and food communication, offering a framework for data-informed decision-making.
2. The Recipe for Lasting Change Cookbook, an engaging, hands-on guide that helps to develop and implement a structured and effective feedback system in the hospital’s food operations in a way that feels doable, meaningful and even fun.

Together, these tools help turn feedback into action—not as a one-time fix, but as a continuous cycle of improvement. They provide the structure and language to support the food system’s evolution at Sophia and could serve as a model for other hospitals working toward similar goals. By focusing first on the experience—on what patients need, want and enjoy—this project lays the groundwork for sustainable change that actually sticks.

In a world facing interconnected crises, there is a growing need for approaches that enable long term systemic transformation. Transition design is one such approach. As a specialised field at the intersection of design and sustainability transitions, it aims to guide societies toward desirable futures through systemic interventions. This dissertation advances transition design theory and practice by exploring how designers can stage their expertise to foster societal transitions. Through research in a transition in the Dutch food system, it examines visioning, framing, and evaluating as key areas of design expertise particularly relevant to transition processes.

With one-third of global food production wasted yearly, food systems face increasing strain. High levels of food waste deplete resources, harm the environment, worsen food insecurity, and incur significant economic costs. Reducing food waste is, therefore, critical for easing pressure on ecosystems and mitigating the effects of climate change. In the Netherlands, household waste is particularly prevalent, embedded in entrenched consumption patterns, making systemic change both urgent and complex.

Against this backdrop, the dissertation makes several contributions. It introduces adaptable consumption as an innovative practice to reduce food waste and enhance food system resilience, supported by an intervention portfolio. It provides methodological guidance for designers working across timeframes, actor networks, and scales, helping identify where and how to intervene in complex systems. Finally, it proposes evaluative qualities to assess whether interventions are desirable, plausible, and networked within transition pathways. These contributions enrich the emerging knowledge in transition design while equipping designers with practical tools for engaging with societal transitions.

Many young people, including myself, experience eco-anxiety. We worry about the impact of climate change on our future: the loss of nature, the harm to vulnerable populations, the threat of safety of living in places like the Netherlands, and this list of concerns goes on and on.

Eco-anxiety, characterized by negative emotions due to the awareness of growing climate risks and environmental threats, can significantly affect mental health among youth, that might cause issues with sleep, work or socializing. Although therapists are able to guide youth through eco-anxiety, mental healthcare already faces long waiting lists. There is a lack of interventions integrated into youth’s daily lives, which can be more promising in effectively helping them manage eco-anxiety. My master’s project, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport, aims to develop a design intervention to help Dutch youth cope with eco-anxiety in their daily lives.

This project starts with a literature review to explore what is known about eco-anxiety among youth and how it can be addressed. The review raises three research questions:

(1) How do youth experience eco-anxiety?
(2) What are the best ways for youth to cope with eco-anxiety in their daily lives?
(3) Who are the key stakeholders and what are their roles?

A mixed-method study, including self-study, context mapping with Dutch youth, and stakeholder interviews, are conducted to address these questions. The results reveal various manifestations of eco-anxiety, individual and social influences contributing to it, effective coping strategies that youth can integrate into their daily lives, and a system map of youth-stakeholder relationships. Based on the literature review and empirical research, the following design goal was formulated:

The design intervention should assist youth (aged 15-21) experiencing eco-anxiety, in fostering positive eco-emotions with someone who is environmentally conscious, which provides support for addressing eco-anxiety when negative eco-emotions arise at a later moment.

To explore possible design directions, two generative sessions with climate psychologists and designers were organized respectively. Then, several initial design concepts were proposed, prototyped, and tested with youth.
This has led to my final design concept: Dear Future, a meaning-focused coping game to empower youth experiencing eco-anxiety. It encourages youth to together reflect on personal values in relation to climate change, providing support to manage eco-anxiety.

Dear Future was prototyped in a high-fidelity way and evaluated by youth, climate psychologists, and policy advisors. Participants found the concept engaging and useful for meaningful conversations and fostering hope. Dear Future could be further improved by integrating small action steps aligned with participants’ values. Additional recommendations include researching how to implement Dear Future, its long-term effects, addressing negative eco-emotions, and incorporating values into climate discussions.

Forensic Psychiatric Centers (FPC’s) provide treatment for patients placed under the Dutch Entrustment Act, aiming to protect society and rehabilitate offenders (De Boer & Gerrits, 2007). Recent developments, such as the 2017 murder of Anne Faber, have increased pressure on FPC’s, with a steady rise in patient numbers and budget cuts of 10% over the past 5 years (Knoester & Boksem, 2020; DPG Media Privacy Gate, n.d.). This strain is exacerbated by staffing shortages and high turnover rates. Operating within the FPC system requires precision, given the severe consequences of errors, and involves navigating diverse stakeholder interests, each with their own risk and error considerations.

The policy-making process of the FPC has to address this complexity. The traditional, linear approach to policy making has been said to not always be well equipped for dealing with this complexity. With these given factors, the opportunity was observed to explore the potential added value of a Systems oriented Design approach in the process of policy making. This project has been initiated within that question:

“How can Systems oriented Design approach play a role in the process of policy-making in a Forensic Psychiatric Centre?”

Literature and empirical research findings reveal that the process of policy-making is hindered by different factors, both in the ‘hard’ systems, like the Document Administration Platform, and the ‘soft’ systems, which lies in the relationships between actors in the system. In the latter case, a Systems oriented Design approach can be beneficial. The design vision therefor focusses on these relationships:

“The FPC as a collective, that together strives towards an open and learning organization.”

The leverage point that was deemed most fruitful to bring this vision into the organization, is the moment of starting the process of policy implementation, when the transfer of responsibility from the Policy advisor to the workforce occurs.

The final concept includes a design intervention to promote this feeling of a collective within a large organization. The intervention aims to address the feelings of uncertainty and distrust that accompany the moment of transferring responsibility from one party to the next.

The intervention “The Implementation Kit” proposes the hosting of a Handover Ceremony to facilitate this transfer. It aims to clarify the roles and responsibilities in the implementation process that is to come, and offers moment to celebrate this new development. By including employees from different departments and disciplines, it can strengthen the connections between parties that don’t often meet in their usual daily activities.

Lastly, recommendations are made to the further development and implementation of the Implementation Kit, based on validation interviews with both internal and external parties. The feasibility of applying this concept outside the FPC’s context is also discussed.

Consumer repair practices are detrimental to advancing the circular economy since they are a vital strategy for prolonging a product‘s lifetime and saving resources. Despite the need for repair services for a functioning circular economy, the practice of Repair for consumers has declined, and more and more citizens prefer product replacement instead of considering the Repair of consumer goods. Research suggests a general mismatch between consumer needs and repair service offerings. (Gobert et al., 2021). The Municipality of Rotterdam wants to facilitate circular behaviour for its citizens. The Municipality is opening a new recycling center with the adjacent Upcycle Mall. It is envisioned as a place for the citizens of Rotterdam to experience the aspects of a circular economy, including different circular economy practices, such as upcycling, recycling and reuse. Designing a Repair offering at the Upcycle Mall for small household electronics and textiles is the task set out to solve in this project.
The local provision of Repair is analysed and structured into four modes: self-repair, Professional Repair, Community Repair, and Non-Profit Repair. A particular focus was put on the local community repair organisations (Repair Cafes) and their challenges.
A literature review and an interview study on consumer behaviour regarding Repair identify the main barriers consumers face. The unique situation of the Upcycle Mall is analysed, and unique opportunities for interventions are identified.
Based on the research findings, a pivotal concept for the Upcycle Mall is proposed: The RepairHub. This repair center leverages its location to trigger repair actions. It introduces the Community Repair Concept as a center for education and links to and empowers the local Community Repair Organizations.The design proposal consists of eight concepts structured in three groups. Three activities to conduct in the RepairHub were designed:
RepairTogether: A convenient Repair Offer for visitors of the recycling center, to give their device another chance.
Sort & Fix: A center to sort, fix and clean the electric devices brought to the recycling center, to make them ready for resale in local Secondhand Stores.
RepairEducation: A concept to educate school classes on repair practices and include Rotterdams Repair Cafes in the Process
Complementing the RepairHub, a comprehensive signage system is designed to effectively guide people to the RepairHub and promote the local Repair Cafes. This system plays a crucial role in encouraging repair actions and making citizens aware of the local provision of Community Repair organisations. In addition, a website and flyer were created to promote these services further.
This thesis concludes with a set of final recommendations to the Municipality to support the Repair Culture and Provision in Rotterdam.

The healthcare sector is one of the major contributors to negative effects on the environment. The healthcare sector is responsible for 7% of the total CO2 emission in the Netherlands (Milieuvoetafdruk rapportage, n.d.), 4% of waste, and 13% of use of resources (Green Deal Duurzame Zorg, n.d.). The emissions produced in, amongst others, the healthcare industry have a negative effect on the public health of the Dutch population. This paradox shows the growing need to make the healthcare sector more environmentally sustainable.

Project goal
This project aims to have a positive impact on the sustainability of the Interventional Cardiology department at Erasmus Medical Centre. The goal of the project is to:

“ Design a co-creation tool that provides a general approach for making medical products or protheses used at the Interventional Cardiology at Erasmus MC more environmentally sustainable. ”


Based on literature research and context research, multiple barriers and opportunties for co-creation of sustainable initiatives were found. These barriers were translated into opportunties for the design of the co-creation tool.
In the ideation phase, brainstorming sessies were held, and how-to questions were answered to find concepts for elements of the co-creation tool. The concepts were evaluated in multiple test sessions with people that work in the medical field and stakeholders from the Interventional Cardiology department. Iterations were made based on the insights from these test sessions.

Outcomes
A co-creation tool was designed for healthcare workers at the Interventional Cardiology department.
The tool consist of two different elements: The Sustainability Space, and the Co-creation toolkit.

The Sustainability Space serves as a basis for sustainability by raising awarenes and increasing the motivation for environmental sustainability amongst stakeholder at the Interventional Cardiology department. The Project Board provides a physical space for sustainabilty that attract attention, hereby raising awareness about the sustainability initiatives. The transparent presentation of the planned, active, and completed sustainability projects might help reduce the resistance to change, as this might be a consequence of unawareness of the need for sustainable improvements.

The co-creation toolkit provides a general approach for the initiation of sustainability projects. The steps in the proces help to establish or strengthen the relationships between stakeholders by creating mutual understanding. The collaborative goal setting activity helps to create goals that aim to align with the values and requirements of all stakeholders. This can create the feeling of a shared responsibility and ownership of the sustainability projects. Defining the goal (with a time-bound element) will improve the change of a succesful completion of the project.

This report delves into the intricacies of sustainable consumer behavior, in the context of Schiphol airport. Schiphol airport is a large airport with large numbers of passengers. These passengers also create waste, which is discarded of. Schiphol has the aim to be zero-waste by 2030.
PET bottles and cans could be seen as a big contributor in the waste streams of Schiphol. This was concluded from research that was executed by TULIPS.
An opportunity for this project was found, as PET bottles and cans are a great option for recycling. This means that ideally these beverage containers should have their separate waste stream. Drawing upon Fogg’s behavior model (2009) as a foundational framework, design opportunities could be found. The model proposes that behaviour is a combination of three key factors: motivation, ability and triggers. In this context, motivation is explored in terms of environmental concerns, while capability is divided into
components such as time, money and physical effort, among others. Triggers, on the other hand, are categorised as sparks, facilitators and signals, each playing a different role in influencing behaviour. The research further delves into practical applications, with a focus on Schiphol and the challenges of PET bottle and can collection. Through a series of brainstorming sessions and idea generation exercises, participants created visual ideas and potential solutions. A final design is proposed which consists of an add-on at the current waste bins at Schiphol, and a campaign proposal. The report concludes with a series of recommendations and insights into what the final design could offer Schiphol as it moves towards a more sustainable future.

The current food industry is failing: universal food security has not been achieved, one-third of all food in the world is wasted and environmental degradation is more extensive than it should be (FAO, 2014). With the expected rise in global population to ten billion eating people by 2050, the environmental outcomes of food systems can be devastating. This conclusion fuels the necessity for society to modify these local consumption and production patterns that are currently unsustainable (UNEP, 2016): the preservation of ecosystems and the future wellbeing of the human population are all centrally dependent on a structural transformation of the food system to a sustainable and resilient state. The client organization for this project is HelloFresh Benelux, the market leader in the mealbox industry in the Netherlands. HelloFresh intends to contribute to the food systems’ sustainability. Therefore this thesis aims to discover how HelloFresh can design for the sustainable development of the Dutch food industry. This thesis adopts a systemic design approach to capture the complexity of food systems. The approach lies in the middle of a field spanning from design practice to systems practice. It helps designers to deal with complex problems by engaging with the value conflicts between stakeholders to develop a broader and more holistic frame of reference. Knowledge was primarily obtained through interviews with actors along the value chain, with experts on the topic and with client employees. Three critical strategies for the sustainable development of Western food systems are established: improving production, reducing food waste and changing diets. Issues and obstacles in the current system were identified, clustered and connected to reveal three key factors accounting for the systems’ inertia. These are: i) Retailers lack the need for sustainability and for efforts outside of their operations, ii) Consumption patterns are unsustainable and the demand for sustainable products is generally low, and iii) the lack of a shared vision on sustainability along the supply chain. It was concluded that the final solution should establish interactions that stimulate sustainable choices in the digital choice environment, and that it should foster interactions favouring a chain approach and cooperation. This led to the final solution, ‘Together Towards Better’, a solution-oriented strategy for HelloFresh to work towards a greener value chain. Five symbols representing the diversity of food sustainability are the cornerstone of the strategy. The symbols are designed for simplicity and to radiate positivity. They allow for telling the story behind ingredients and celebrating independent sustainability achievements. The first phase of the strategy focuses on facilitating and stimulating sustainable consumption behaviour by the integration of the symbols in digital choice environments. The sustainability tags serve as focal points for customers, creating a hierarchy between ingredients and recipes, functioning as feedback mechanisms and rewarding people for making the green choice. Gamification and personal feedback are employed to stimulate customers' sustainable actions. The second phase aims to build long-term and sustainable relationships along the value chain to assist actors in their sustainability journey. The tags can convey the objectives of the strategy to supply chain partners and to communicate shared achievements to consumers. The final solution is supported by a communication strategy and an implementation roadmap. Finally, validation of the concept took place with consumers, an expert and a supplier to evaluate its desirability, feasibility and impact. The validation study led to recommendations for the implementation of the concept. The contributions of this thesis have the aim to demonstrate how mealboxes can contribute to the sustainability transition of the Dutch food industry.

The energy grid is transitioning from a centrally controlled demand response system to a decentralized supply response system. There are multiple reasons for this, but the main one is the need to transition to a low carbon energy system to tackle climate change and decrease our dependency on non-renewable energy sources. Next to this consumers become active consumers (prosumers) and increasingly take control over their local (energy) situation. As a result this transition creates a multitude of challenges and demands a re-design of the energy system. Stedin, the Netherlands 3rd largest Distribution System Operator (DSO), set out to find a solution to the challenges posed by the energy transition. The concept they came up with was a design for a Layered Energy System (LES). By running two pilots LES is fully developed and almost ready to be made available for the larger public in the form of a re-branding of LES to Lokaal Energy Flexibel (LEF). However, how LEF should be made available remains unknown. So in order for LEF to be launched to a larger public a new service needs to be designed. A service that sets out to communicate the information which is needed to start your own Local Energy Community (LEC) and collaboratively with Stedin and a service provider of choice set up a LEC. Designing this service is the task set out to solve in this project. One other task is determining what the role of Stedin should be in this process of setting up a LEC. The dilemma is Stedin wants to facilitate LECs and the market but on the other hand should not in turn take over responsibilities of the market. The methodology used to solve the aforementioned problem is service design. A concept service design is made that sets out to help communities explore how to set up a LEC. The design is centered around a community dashboard that shows the current energy situation within a community. All the data found in this dashboard can then also be used in a community configurator to create an ideal design for the local situation and community vision. This design is then communicated to Stedin in the form of a project sketch. Stedin can give feedback or a ‘go’ on the project sketch. This ends the explore phase, after which a LEC can turn to the market for materializing the design. The concept service is communicated with a future service scenario and a service blueprint. Out of this service blueprint the LEF landing page and the community configurator are prototyped and tested with potential users. After testing the solution and direction proved to be in the right direction. However a ‘dumb’ configurator as tested was found challenging for the typical community leader. This result vouches for a more data driven and automated configurator as proposed in the future service scenario. The thesis is concluded with a roadmap for implementation and advice on how to create an MVP as the first step towards implementing the service design.

The Dutch food system nowadays is more efficient than ever and is able to feed many. However, this globalized and industrialized food system cannot be sustained in the next eras, because of its high contribution to biodiversity loss, the emission of greenhouse gasses and the fast decrease of soil health. System change is needed to move our food system to one that can feed the world population without compromising our future generations. Short food supply chains (SFSCs) could contribute to this system change as they increase consumer awareness, promise a better price for the farmer and as such create room for more sustainable farming approaches. To increase the amount of short food chains in the Netherlands, this thesis project focuses on equipping SFSC entrepreneurs to overcome one or more of the main barriers they face when creating such a chain. A literature study, interviews and observations uncover that the most important challenges are faced in the phase of scaling-up. The one-on-one contact between food producer and consumer is no longer viable in this phase due to the rising amount of customers. Meanwhile, consumer research shows that this direct contact with the producer is crucial in meeting the specific consumer needs that are fulfilled when buying in a SFSC. In conclusion, the challenge of creating a customer experience in which the consumer feels close to its food- and producer, whilst having indirect consumer-producer contact, is defined as this projects’ design focus. To find a tangible solution to this challenge a case study with De Nieuwe Melkboer is set up. This Dutch soy milk initiative has just launched its first product and is facing the abovementioned challenge. A creative and collaborative approach has led to a design solution for De Nieuwe Melkboer: every purchase counts - a customer experience to create awareness by involving consumers in the impact of their food choices. Instead of selling a bottle of milk, a bottle of positive impact is sold as the front of the label only states ‘deze aankoop telt’ – this purchase matters; it counts. An online service is created in which the consumer can decide to what positive impact project their purchase should contribute. Offering this choice will create a feeling of inclusion and build understanding the impact that growing and processing soy has on our planet and society. The consumer will be notified once the positive impact is realized and thus stays included and gets a tangible image of the impact that his food choices have. To share the insights of this research with SFSC entrepreneurs a handout has been created. It provides an overview of consumer wishes when buying in a short food chain and includes three questions that SFSC entrepreneurs should ask themselves to better respond to consumer needs. All in all, it is one step forward in better equipping short food chain entrepreneurs to take on the challenge of scaling up their initiative.

The project is undertaken for the organization of British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums(BIAZA). BIAZA is an association with 121 member zoos and aquariums in the UK and Ireland. It’s member zoos and aquariums receive a whopping audience of about 35 million visitors every year, which is more than half of the total populations of the UK and Ireland combined. The initial brief from BIAZA was ‘How can their member zoos and aquariums leverage the huge audience to drive a positive societal change?” To answer the question, the project begins to explore four main domains of research: Biodiversity, Behavioral change, The UK as a society, and Zoos and Aquariums. for its aesthetic value and has limited knowledge about his/her relationships with the animal world. This lack of recognition and acknowledgment of one’s relationships with the animal world weakens one’s environmental identity. Hence, ‘development of an identity that recognizes and acknowledges one’s relationships with the natural world’ is defined as the ‘change to aim for’. lives as they leave the zoo. Hence the app takes the visitors Beyond the zoo and also remains with the visitor beyond the zoo. Following the design, the concept is prototyped and tested with the users and validates by a zoo educator. The concept received extremely positive feedback from both of them establishing its desirability, feasibility, and viability. From the research about Biodiversity, it is derived that Biodiversity is crucial for the maintenance of Ecosystems. Human life in many ways depend on the ecosystem services. However, biodiversity is declining globally at an alarmingly fast pace due to human activities such as intensified agricultural, overexploitation, and pollution. At the core of such systemic activities, lies an individual’s everyday behaviors. This project aims to influence these individual behaviors. The insights from the behavioral change literature suggest that many factors influence one’s behaviors including environmental identity, which is the best predictor of one’s pro-environmental behaviors. Through this lens of behavioral change, the UK society’s engagement with the problem of loss of biodiversity is explored via interviews and literature research. It is concluded that overall a typical UK citizen loves nature and wildlife Based on the change to aim for, the context of Zoos is explored to recognize the efforts of zoos to educate people about conservation and the effects these efforts have on the visitors. It is concluded that zoos show great potential for the development of identity because of the presence of a live animal’s ability to generate an emotional connection with the animal. Based on the capacity of zoos to connect people with the animals, the role of zoos in moving forward towards the systemic direction is “To strengthen people’s relationships with biodiversity”. With the goal for the zoos defined, a three phased approach of Show, Sensitize and Inspire is proposed to the zoos to move forward towards achieving this goal.. Based on the proposed approach, the concept of “Beyond the Zoo” is designed. The major part of the concept is an app supported by minor physical infrastructures at the zoo. The app can be downloaded by the visitors and is designed to work in tandem with a zoo visit. The concept is designed to motivate visitors to learn more about the interspecific relationships between animals in an engaging and exciting ‘treasure hunt’s fashion. The app is also designed to engage people in recognizing the contributions of biodiversity to their everyday life and subsequently inspire and support them to take positive actions in their own The project ends with providing implementation guidelines and other recommendations to BIAZA for moving forward with this particular concept and towards the systemic direction defined for zoos.

Food waste is a global issue that causes various but significant global impacts, wasting millions of hectares of arable land, 0.75 to 1.25 trillion of cubic meter of water per year, and about 1.5% of the global energy production. In developed nations, food waste occurs mainly at the retail and consumer stage. By 2050, 80% of the global food consumption will take place within cities. Cities are also a key nexus of energy, water, and food flows. Amsterdam offers an interesting case study as the city does not have any comprehensive strategy to tackle the food waste produced within its boundaries. Yet, the city has shown ambitions in transforming itself into a sustainable metropolis with strong renewable energy and circular strategies. This study uses the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus approach, particularly suited to understand the interactions and interconnections between Amsterdam’s food flows and the energy and water systems. This study performs a Material Flow Analysis to quantify the different food waste (FW) flows and their origins. It finds that households are the main producers of food waste compared to FW-producing businesses in Amsterdam. Bread, dairy, vegetables, and fruits are the largest avoidable FW, while vegetable peels, fruits peels, coffee grounds, and potatoes peels constitute the bulk of unavoidable food waste. It then quantifies the embedded energy and water present within these food flows. Using the latest developments in the field of bio-based economy regarding food waste valorization, it provides an inventory of the potential technologies available to valorize Amsterdam’s FW. The study then quantifies the energy and water inputs of 12 of these food waste-valorizing technologies. This step confirms the large knowledge gap regarding the water and energy intensities of the latest bio-based technologies. The type and amount of recovered resources through these technologies are also quantified. In addition, this study provides a review of the current social and commercial initiatives based in Amsterdam tackling this issue of food waste. It offers a six-category qualitative framework to assess their food waste rescue potential. Then, a new food waste management and valorization framework is proposed, based on the Value Pyramid model from the bio-based economy, the Food Waste Management Hierarchy framework, and the FEW nexus insights developed in this study. This new framework enables to outline strategies for both Amsterdam’s avoidable and unavoidable food waste flows. It suggests anaerobic digestion, Black Soldier Fly bioconversion, and composting as potential FEW-efficient solutions for Amsterdam’s unavoidable FW. Last, Amsterdam’s FW stakeholders are analyzed through their importance, interests, and potential roles in a future FW scheme. It suggests that the municipality and AEB, Amsterdam’s Waste-to-Energy plant should be at the center of a future FW valorization scheme. Overall, this study combines the FEW nexus perspective and the bio-based economy approach to identify the best options to manage and valorize Amsterdam’s food waste.

Product Service Systems (PSSs) are considered to be a promising approach towards a sustainable, resource efficient economy (Tukker, A., 2015) (defined as ‘a mix of tangible products and intangible services designed and combined so that they are jointly capable of fulfilling final customer needs’ (Tukker, A. & Tischner, 2006)), because they make the delivery of satisfaction possible through functions and not necessarily through products, fulfilling needs with less resources and consequently with lower impact. This is especially true when they are specifically designed to provide high quality resource efficient products. Bundles is a Dutch company that is intending to do exactly that, making high quality home appliances accessible through a Use oriented PSS (Tukker, 2003) where they lease washing machines and other home appliances, maintaining the ownership over the washing machine and becoming responsible for all maintenance and repair costs. Bundles has as a goal the reduction of waste and environmental impact caused by the use and disposal of low-end non efficient machines. They intend to increase the lifetime of their products, submitting them to several use cycles by recovering the appliance, refurbishing it and installing it in a new home. Supported by IoT technologies they currently monitor the use phase (to calculate the monthly fee based on the number of washing cycles) and are now interested in extending the possibilities of these technologies for refurbishment, reuse, and recycling processes. Additionally, with the advantage of maintaining control over the ownership of a great number of appliances, Bundles opens interesting opportunities for material and part recovery. For all of these reasons Bundles is recognized for having a business model that could benefit the circular economy. In order to fulfill all of the above, Bundles exclusively works with washing machines from German manufacturer Miele due to their high content of recyclable materials, high quality and long lasting characteristics. However, these characteristics of the product represent today, limitations to many of the envisioned processes to achieve having several use cycles. Making processes like refurbishment and part replacement expensive or not possible at all. Because of this it is unclear for Bundles how to deal with the deterioration of the machines after several use cycles and how customers will perceive this deterioration, and although Miele gives their products a life expectancy of approximately 20 years, Bundles only considers the machine to have a life expectancy of approximately 10 years within their business model. Additionally, Bundles offer is bounded to a machine that is also available for customers to purchase, limiting their competitive advantages over product-based business models. A customer with the stability and economic possibilities of purchasing a Miele washing machine will most likely perceive Bundles’ PSS as expensive in the long term. Nowadays Bundles and Miele, design and deliver their services/products independently from each other and for different types of business models. This project focuses on finding opportunities to improve the synergy between Miele's product and Bundle's service to enhance the economic, circular and environmental possibilities of the current PSS. In order to do that, this project initiated with a literature and field research with all primary stakeholders, considering them individually and relationships with one another, that delivered insights regarding the current limitations of the components and delivery of the PSSs and potential opportunities for its improvement, within all phases of its life cycle (Pre-use, Use and Post-use). The insights were then translated into values or Focus Areas to guide the ideation and further development of the PSS: Personalization is identified as a relevant value for the Pre-use phase, to increase the perceived value of the user over the PSS and refurbished products and for the Use phase, as an opportunity for the reduction of the environmental impact. Likewise, communication is identified to be a value that can be used to positively influence the user behaviour to reduce the environmental impact of the Use phase (highest among all phases of the lifecycle of a washing machine (Öko-Institut, 2005)), and improve his/ her involvement in maintenance and caring procedures. Lastly, refurbishment is selected as a focus area for the Post-use phase since the improvement of the product in this aspect could not only reduce costs for Bundles but also increase the life expectancy of the product. These values were used as a guideline throughout the ideation process, which delivered a collection of several concepts that were further evaluated together with all main stakeholders, the sinal result of these process delivered a combination of a new concept washing machine and a personalization platform. The new PSS proposes a washing service that allows users to personalize their washing machines inside and outside. The user can select a color for the front panel of the machine, thanks to the implementation of a replaceable layer and obtains a personalized ‘Washing Package’, which includes: a set of programs, number of washes per month (frequency) and set of tips. All three elements are defined by a system that considers the user’s specific washing needs with information obtained through a digital platform (The Washing Test), and pairs them with identified recommendations for: the reduction of environmental impact of washing, the best care for clothes, and recommendations related to the care and maintenance of the washing machine. The personalization of the Washing Package allows users to take the best care for their clothes without an excessive use of resources (energy and water). The internet module of the washing machine and its sensors allow the monitoring of use and state of the components of the machine. The data collected from the monitoring of use is used by the system to constantly update the Washing Package to adapt it to changes in the user’s needs or identified behaviour that increases the environmental impact. The design of the washing machine, allows it to have several use cycles without losing its aesthetic value, its quality or its resource efficiency. The construction, materials and finishings of the washing machine are proposed for the optimization of refurbishment processes as well as the improvement of access to its components for updates and repairs allowing the machine to increase its life expectancy within the PSS to the originally establishes expectancy of 20 years (defined by Miele). As a final step of this project the new concept was evaluated first, together with the main stakeholders and then submitted to an assessment to identify its improvements in disassembly and ease of access as well as refurbishment processes and the reduction of the environmental impact in comparison with the current PSS. The new concept appears to have the potential of improving the implementation of the PSS throughout all of the phases of its lifecycle and is assessed positively by the stakeholders specifically considering its potential to reduce refurbishment costs, increase the life expectancy of the product, increase the perceived value of the user over refurbished products and PSSs, and the reduction of the environmental impact of the use phase. The results of the validation and assessment allowed the identification of information gaps for further research and further development of the concept. These include for example, the development of test settings and prototypes for further proof of concept, a more refined and accurate Life Cycle Assessment to identify further specific points of improvement, further detailing and analysis of the product structure and construction to reduce its material input, and further study and analysis regarding the recovery of the product and the possibilities of the reintroduction of its materials and components in the manufacturing of new washing machines . To conclude, the new concept proposes product service combination which characteristics enhance each others functions and overall envisioned processes towards the reduction of environmental impact and increase of circularity, whilst considering the involvement of Miele and Bundles in a new collaborative relationship for the achievement of all processes and successful implementation of the PSS.

This design project investigates how commoning can support the practice of urban foraging, resulting in a framework that describes the social characteristics of commoning and the abilities and opportunities for urban foraging. The framework led to a design showcase, called Get To Gather, which is an interactive board in public space to let citizens experience the practice of urban foraging, as an entrance to the foraging community.

Commoning is a verb of “commons” that describes the social process to manage the commons. The goal of the commons movement is to reclaim commonwealth, and transform the focus on privatization into collective use of resources while preventing them from being commercialized. Commoning is a social process that relies on active collaboration and cooperation.

The practice of urban foraging describes going from place to place searching for things to eat or use, in an urban context. Foraged food is also described as “zero-footprint food” since it is entirely outside the profit-making food production system we know today, which provides people to live self-sufficient and supports a resilient food production system in the city. Foraging goes beyond the consumption of wild edible plants because it is a social activity, in which people pass on knowledge, culture, and traditions from generation to generation. This project focuses on foraging as a leisure activity in the Netherlands.

Foraging is getting more popular, which resulted in the concern of external authorities about the safety of people and the environment. Also, beginner foragers experience fear of eating poisonous or dirty plants in the city. In combination with the social motivations of urban foraging, this resulted in an inspiring and robust network, a community that wants to make sure that everyone forages safely and with care for the environment. Therefore, the community expresses a need to involve beginner foragers into their network.
Urban foraging is an act that transforms unused urban nature into a place with social interactions. In the city, there are fragmented municipal plots that do not fulfill a specific function. In this report, these areas are man’s lands. The final design is an entrance to the foraging community at these locations, to create awareness about the community, and involve beginner foragers to teach them how to treat the environment correctly and perform the practice safely. The design is ‘do it yourself,’ so people can make the design by themselves without waiting for external authorities. Get To Gather transforms unused urban green spaces into places for social access.

The design shows how commoning can support the practice of urban foraging, by making the foraging community, and nature in the city equitable accessible for people outside the community. It frames urban foraging as a practice with social benefits, by showing the community, in which foragers have strong social ties with fellow foragers.

This master’s thesis documents the design process behind Microfarm, a small-scale indoor farm designed specifically for restaurants. Facilitator of this project is Priva, which is a company specialized in horticulture and venturing into indoor farming. Indoor farming involves growing edible plants in closed structures using artificial lighting The first phase of the project aims at understanding Priva and the technical principle behind indoor farming as well as determining which competing products exist and which users are interesting to design for. It is concluded by choosing a specific market segment, which are high-end restaurants. Based on this result, an ideal scenario is created and seven restaurants are interviewed and analyzed using techniques from contextmapping. It is concluded with a design vision that serves as input for ideation. Next, multiple aspects of the ideal scenario are ideated upon, such as the Priva Portal which supplies restaurants with their growing supplies, and working out specific details regarding the physical design and technical aspects. Following ideation, three concepts are proposed, with one being chosen through objective criteria. In the first iteration, the concept now known as Microfarm is further worked out and a business model and prototype are developed and validated. In the second iteration, a customer journey is set up for generating new ideas in enhancing the guest’s indoor farming experience, resulting in Nanofarm, and Microfarm’s design is changed to be smaller and compacter as a result of the first iteration. The last phase of the report describes the final designs of Microfarm and Nanofarm as well as Priva Portal and the business model. Recommendations are given and the project is evaluated. The project is concluded by stating that a small indoor farm is feasible and that high end restaurants are a fitting context for such a product, but there is a considerable chance that such a product will ultimately not work regarding the small impact such a product will have compared to the amount of resources a restaurant will have to invest.