The project focuses on validating ultrasound plant sensor technology through grower insights. The primary goal is to understand how growers monitor their crops, using terms like "vegetative," "generative," "strong," and "weak." Additionally, we aim to gather their reasoning behind certain plant assessments. By correlating these insights with data from ultrasound sensors, we hope to provide interpretable information that growers can use in their cultivation practices.

Making cultivation more efficient for growers is crucial to the challenge of producing enough food for the world’s growing population. By using technology that supports growers, we can help them scale up their operations and ultimately produce more food.
We conducted interviews to investigate how tomato growers monitor their crops. Usability testing was also performed to design an intuitive, straightforward way for growers to share their insights. The result of this effort is an app that collects growers' subjective plant assessments efficiently.

The next crucial step is to begin collecting data through the app to see if there’s a common truth in the growers' insights. If such a pattern is found, the growers' assessments can be correlated with the ultrasound sensor data, and ultimately provide actionable insights back to growers in the terms they frequently use: "vegetative," "generative," "strong," and "weak."
Ultimately, these actionable insights would be combined with other data types to generate tailored advice for the grower. An exploration will be done to determine how this could take shape.

Food loss and waste (FLW) generation is a global issue that has recently gained an increasing attention. It has previously been estimated that approximately one third of all food globally produced is wasted. Recently, other accounts have been made, for various food products and focusing on various geographical scopes, sometimes disaggregating between various qualities of FLW, but none was found to quantify FLW per quality at the global level. This would be a pertinent addition to the ongoing research, as the type of treatment (or valorisation) possible is dependent on the type of FLW, and this would be of great relevance in the global actions towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 aiming at the reduction of food loss and food waste globally by halve by 2030. Additionally, recent literature focuses on avoidable FLW or does not separate between avoidable and unavoidable, although it is essential to address unavoidable FLW on its own as by its nature it cannot simply be prevented and its generation should thus be appropriately managed. Therefore, this thesis project aimed at answering how much food is currently being lost and wasted regarding fruits and vegetables at the global level and how it can be valorised. In the first part of the research, a Material Flow Analysis (MFA) was conducted at the global level to quantify unavoidable loss generated at the processing stage and unavoidable waste generated at the retail and consumption stages. The results show that the fruit value chain generates more unavoidable loss and waste than the vegetable value chain and that the retail and consumption stages generate more unavoidable waste than the processing stage of unavoidable loss. Additionally, regional hotspots were identified. In the second part of the research, an assessment of the valorisation pathways is conducted on the category of loss and waste streams identified as the most problematic by the MFA results, which was fruit and vegetable peel. The valorisation assessment was conducted following the concept of the FLW management hierarchy, which ranks the various end-of-life (EoL) treatments by prioritizing the most environmental-friendly and resource-efficient ones. In this study, the potential of fruit and vegetable peel loss and waste for reuse in food and feed, for the production of biobased materials, biofertilizers as well as biofuels was explored and quantified. The results suggest that an optimal FLW management system should be an adequate mix of various valorisation pathways. In regard to the SDG 12.3, efforts should aim on the one hand at preventing FLWthat can be avoided and on the other hand at valorising FLW that cannot be avoided.

Faced with increased pressure due to the earthquakes in Groningen and global warming, the Netherlands government has decided to discontinue the production of and completely transition away from natural gas by 2050. This requires the transformation of the 95% of houses that are currently heated using natural gas into ones that are heated using greener energy alternatives. To affect the requisite change, the government’s top-down, policy-driven efforts need to be complemented with bottom-up, socially-driven interventions that lead to the institutionalisation and large-scale adoption of the greener energy alternatives. This project aims to stimulate this bottom-up institutionalisation and activate residents towards the energy transition using the phenomena of social influence and social contagion. The focus on social influence and social contagion follows from the extensive literature that highlights the significant role of social norms, social proof, social context and social networks on an individual’s decision-making and attitude formation; as well as in changing behaviours. The project draws on complex contagion theory to activate residents. Reyeroord (a pilot neighbourhood in Rotterdam) is used as a case study to understand the municipality’s efforts and residents’ motivations & apprehensions towards the energy transition; as well as to understand people’s social identities and networks – the building blocks of social influence. Analysis reveals the prevalence of different barriers under the key themes of trust, loss/ risk perceptions, understanding & awareness which lead to procrastination of decision-making amongst residents. Thus, overcoming procrastination by mitigating the underlying apprehensions and barriers forms the key goal for Reyeroord. In order to help the Municipality(s) to overcome these apprehensions using social contagion, the ‘Design for social contagion’ framework and toolkit are developed. The framework provides actionable steps that help in visualising and shaping the contagion of the target behaviour. The toolkit helps in designing interventions within the process outlined in the framework. It consists of a deck of inspiration cards, a set of canvases and a design handbook; to be used during a creative session. The inspiration cards capture the design criteria, design principles and design components that each intervention must fulfill, follow and consist of, respectively. Additionally, the cards include examples of persuasive strategies that can be used to design the interventions. The canvases guide the design process from problem definition, brainstorming, concept generation to detailing. The handbook outlines how to use the toolkit. From the perspective of transitions (transition design), the project, its outcomes and the underlying principle of social contagion provide a new perspective and leverage point to untangle (loosen) the complex knot between the interconnected social, technical, financial and political lock-ins and steer systemic change. On the other hand, it bridges the gap between academia and practice by providing actionable steps to shape contagions, qualitatively.

Food waste is a global problem that has a significant impact on the environment and society. Nevertheless, the Dutch government lacks a clear strategy to reduce food waste. The city of Amsterdam also lacks such a strategy. Therefore, various social innovation initiatives are actively preventing food waste. These initiatives emerge from local collaboration and address a social problem in society that existing institutions have failed to tackle themselves. These initiatives call themselves “signaleringskeukens" or food waste prevention initiatives. As there is a lack of knowledge on the impact and governance of food waste prevention initiatives, this thesis aims to answer the following research question: What is the impact of food waste prevention initiatives in Amsterdam? In doing so, it will look at the governance of food waste prevention initiatives, their environmental and socio-economic impact, and drivers and barriers that influence this impact. This thesis shows that it is difficult for food waste prevention initiatives to realize an impact. They are confronted with barriers in almost every aspect of their activities. Despite collecting a significant amount of food waste, food waste prevention initiatives are still merely scratching the surface compared to Amsterdam's total amount of food waste. The initiatives are aware of this and primarily focus on raising awareness of food waste and food waste prevention. Thereby, the initiatives reach thousands of people but fail to reach politicians, councilors, and food businesses. Consequently, food waste prevention initiatives have not yet realized system innovation and transformative change. Nonetheless, they show great potential for changing the food system as long as they establish strong networks.

Currently, the City of Rotterdam is far from achieving their ambitious 2020 goal of a 40% household waste separation rate. In 2017, their separation rate was only 28,4%. Household waste separation is important to enable the recycling of resources. For high-rise buildings, the challenge is the biggest: high-rise buildings produce an average of 150 kg more residual waste per year compared to low-rise buildings. The City of Rotterdam’s plans to build more high-rise buildings in the coming years makes it urgent to look for a solution. Separation at the source currently is more effective than mechanical post-consumer separation. However, the success of separation at the source depends entirely on the waste separation behaviour of high-rise residents. Therefore the main research question is: How to facilitate for high-rise residents the desired behaviour of waste separation at household level, in high-rise buildings?
From human behaviour theory, behaviour can be explained as a combination of one’s motivation, ability, and opportunity. When one’s motivation is low, a low ability needs to be sufficient to trigger action. A change of environment can support a behaviour change. The many influencing factors for waste separation found in literature show the complexity of the behaviour. The factors are supported and complemented by interviews and generative research.
Understanding high-rise residents’ mindset towards household waste separation, reveals four different groups of people: the Enthusiasts, the Potentials, the Skeptics and the Conservatives. The Potentials are closest to following the Enthusiasts in practising waste separation. However, they currently lack a (physical and mental) system for doing so. When considering starting this behaviour, the required effort for creating a system outweighs their medium level of motivation. The proposed solution is Schone start. Schone start supports high-rise residents with the creation of a waste separation habit in the first month after moving, by providing the means to set-up a system for waste separation. The mail delivery package contains a Waste guide, Waste map, small waste bin, medium waste bag, large waste box, stickers and suggestions for use. All essential information to start waste separation is actively provided and in accordance with the circular ambitions of the City of Rotterdam. Schone start is evaluated with six recently moved high-rise residents in Rotterdam. Generally Schone start is positively evaluated by the test participants regarding helpfulness with household waste separation. The Waste guide and Waste map were highly appreciated. The waste facilities were partially used, but can be optimised. The ease of disposal of the separated waste stays a critical boundary condition.
To implement Schone start, its design should be optimised for appearance and size to maximise the percentage of citizens making use of the product. It is recommended to evaluate the long-term quantitative effect (the household waste separation rate) and qualitative effect (awareness of the household waste separation practice) of Schone start in a large scale pilot over six months. In this way, more insights can be gained regarding the potential impact of Schone start for different target groups and contexts.

Sustainability is becoming more important in numerous industries, including healthcare. Action to achieve sustainability is undertaken by various means, such as the Green Deal Healthcare. Several tools exist that can assess the environmental impact of a certain industry or company, but no tools exist that aid in actively lowering this environmental impact. Therefore, the HSMEA (Healthcare Sustainability Mode and Effect Analysis) tool was developed. This method is based on the Lean philosophy and HFMEA (Healthcare Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) tool and consists of six steps that aid in making a healthcare process more sustainable, in terms of waste production, energy use, or water use. With this tool, processes that contribute to these factors are identified in a highly structured and systematic way, and practical solutions are created and executed for these situations by a multidisciplinary team. This tool was validated in the academic hospital in Leiden, the Netherlands (Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum). Next, it was applied to two clinical case studies, assessing two processes that are currently present in the operating rooms of the LUMC. The HSMEA tool showed that with the implementation of four solutions, great improvements can be achieved in terms of waste and CO₂-equivalents production and recycling rate. These four interventions are currently being implemented in the LUMC. This novel sustainability tool has therefore proved its usefulness and clinical applicability in a healthcare setting. By implementing this tool throughout the hospital, it will support the hospital reaching its sustainability goals.