KLIOL – Climate Change mitigation in Hospitals by Optimizing Supply Chains
The project 'Climate Change mitigation in Hospitals by Optimizing Supply Chains' (KliOL) aims to create a greenhouse gas calculator for hospitals with a special focus on greenhouse gas emissions from supply chains ("Scope 3" emissions) using Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) as an example. In parallel, exemplary climate change measures will be implemented at the UKHD and evaluated with regard to their impact on the greenhouse gas balance, financial aspects and possible health effects. Ina Danquah and her team have developed a cafeteria-based sustainable diet intervention and identified the impacts on dietary practices, physical and mental wellbeing, greenhouse gas emissions, and costs of the diet.
Countries: Germany
Methodology
In this quasi-experiment, plant-based menus and educational material on sustainable diets were provided in the largest cafeteria of a German hospital for 3 months. Regular customers (>1/week) in this cafeteria and in a cafeteria without the intervention completed a questionnaire about their socio-demographic and dietary characteristics before and after the intervention period. We also estimated greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) from food intake by Life-Cycle Analysis (LCA) and documented the opportunity costs, staff costs, and monetary costs of the implementation. Difference-in-differences approaches were used to define the effects on sustainable dietary practice, wellbeing, GHGE, and costs.
Main Cooperation Partners
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Dr. Alina Herrmann, Heidelberg Institute for Global Health (HIGH), Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany
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Dr. Bernd Franke, Institute for Energy and Environment Research (ifeu), Heidelberg, Germany
Main Funding Partners
- German Federal Ministry for Economy and Climate Protection (BMWK) – National Climate Protection Initiative (NKI)
Duration of the project
3 years (01 Sep 2021 – 31 Aug 2024)
Publications
Main Cooperation Partners
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Harrison L, Herrmann A, Quitmann C, Stieglbauer G, Zeitz C, Reininghaus U, Schick A, Danquah I. Effects of a cafeteria-based sustainable diet intervention on wellbeing at a large German hospital: a quasi-experimental study. BMC Public Health. 2025 Jun 2;25(1):2047. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-22533-6
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Harrison L, Herrmann A, Quitman C, Stieglbauer G, Zeitz C, Franke B, Danquah I. Effects of a cafeteria-based sustainable diet intervention on the adherence to the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet and greenhouse gas emissions of consumers: a quasi-experimental study at a large German hospital. Nutr J. 2024 Jul 18;23(1):80. doi: 10.1186/s12937-024-00981-x
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Harrison L, Reynolds E, Quitmann C, Till L, Franke B, Zeitz C, Danquah I, Herrmann A. Planetary Health Diet in a hospital cafeteria: Increasing employee satisfaction and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and costs. ZEFQ. 2025 doi:10.1016/j.zefq.2024.12.003
Team
- Prof. Ina Danquah
- Laura Harrison (candidate Dr. med.)