Initiativen

Recent initiatives

Topic: Sustainable food security and food quality

Rethinking meat alternatives in the context of sustainability

Current global developments — climate change, loss of biological diversity, and contamination of water resources and soils — are confronting our food system with significant challenges. These circumstances undermine the essential natural conditions for the production of our food. At the same time, the prevailing pattern of unhealthy diets is contributing to an increase in diseases that place a significant burden on our healthcare systems. This means that the demand for healthier and more sustainable food is becoming increasingly urgent.

Reducing animal-based products
To counteract climate change, we must consume fewer animal products. This has led to the rise of vegetarian and vegan alternatives, with the market already having reached 12 billion euros in 2022 and continuing to grow. These alternatives are mostly based on plant proteins and use technologies such as extrusion and 3D printing to imitate the texture of meat. Although they are good for the climate, the question is whether they are also healthy, especially because they do not contain some important nutrients or are more difficult for the body to absorb.
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Objective and impact
The interdisciplinary research team led by Professor Alexander Mathys from the Sustainable Food Processing Lab at ETH Zurich is addressing this question. The research project aims to understand how plant-based meat alternatives are composed, how their texture is produced, and what effects they have on our metabolism and energy intake. These findings can help us develop methods to produce healthier meat alternatives.

Further information

Topic: Sustainability of owner-managed companies

Owning impact — the power of a systemic investment approach

A recent MIT Sloan case study explored investors' efforts to address the systemic challenge of food waste. It showed how millions of dollars from the Fink family triggered billions of dollars in annual investments that flowed into a network of complementary solutions.
The “MIT Owning Impact Project”
As a recent MIT Sloan case study on systemic investing shows, millions of dollars from the Fink family triggered billions of dollars in annual investments that flowed into a network of complementary solutions.

The MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative’s Owning Impact Project is a new research initiative that explores the role and potential of systemic investments — an emerging investment logic that asks which fundamental changes are needed to create a sustainable world, and how financial capital could be used to make such changes possible while providing attractive returns.

Objective and impact
With different stakeholders working together and capital being allocated strategically, the aim is to promote a wider, integrated approach to solving systemic problems that goes beyond simple impact metrics and individual investments. The objective is to support real system change that focuses on the fundamental transformation of human and natural systems

Further information

Initiatives

Background

Recent initiatives

Rethinking meat alternatives in the context of sustainability

Owning impact — the power of a systemic investment approach