Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) promotes more sustainable food consumption by providing vegetarian and vegan meals in its campus canteens. This initiative is linked to the university’s Ecofarm, managed by the Subdirectorate of Conservation, which cultivates fresh vegetables and herbs using environmentally responsible farming practices that avoid synthetic chemical inputs.
Ecofarm produces a range of agricultural commodities, including spinach, kale, mustard greens, chillies, tomatoes, and soybeans used in tofu production. These ingredients support food provision across campus canteens and are prepared into a variety of plant-based dishes, such as gado-gado (Indonesian vegetable salad with peanut sauce), nasi pecel (rice served with vegetables and peanut sauce), spinach soup, stir-fried water spinach, and mixed vegetable stir-fry. Available daily at affordable prices, these meals provide students and university staff with accessible options for nutritious food.
To encourage a more responsible food supply chain, UNNES uses produce from its own Ecofarm alongside food ingredients sourced from local organic farmers. This approach can help reduce the environmental impacts associated with food supply chains while strengthening the participation of local producers in the green economy. The university also conducts periodic inspections of campus canteens through the Food Health and Safety Team under the Student Affairs Office. These inspections help ensure that hygiene, food safety, and food quality standards are maintained.
The harvest from the eco-farm—such as spinach, kale, mustard greens, chilies, tomatoes, and tofu soybeans—is distributed daily to canteens across campus. The produce is then used to prepare nutritious vegetarian and vegan dishes, including gado-gado (vegetable salad with peanut sauce), nasi pecel (rice with steamed vegetables and peanut dressing), sayur bayam (spinach soup), tumis kangkung (stir-fried water spinach), and capcay (mixed vegetable stir-fry). These meals are available every day at affordable prices in all food canteen, making healthy eating accessible to all students and staff.
UNNES also ensures that the food ingredients come from local organic farmers and campus-based eco-production, helping reduce the university’s carbon footprint while supporting the local green economy. To maintain high food quality, all campus canteens are regularly monitored by the Health and Food Safety Team from the Student Affairs Office to ensure hygiene, safety, and nutritional value.
In addition, UNNES applies a zero-waste approach in its dining system. Canteens use biodegradable packaging, minimize single-use plastics, and practice waste segregation, where leftover organic waste is processed into compost at the university’s Integrated Waste Management Center (TPST) and reused at the eco-farm. UNNES consistently measures and manages food waste produced across all campus buildings, including canteens and offices where staff and students bring their own meals. Food waste is collected daily by cleaning service teams and sent to the Final Waste Management Facility (TPST) for weighing, data recording, and processing. By connecting plant-based food provision with environmentally responsible farming and organic waste recovery, UNNES promotes more sustainable consumption and production practices within the higher education environment. These interconnected initiatives demonstrate an institutional approach to integrating food accessibility, environmental stewardship, and resource efficiency into everyday campus operations.
