The Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) offers high-level undergraduate and postgraduate levels of education and research in agricultural science. Its vision is to achieve educational and research excellence and occupy a dynamic position in the international academic environment. AUA is the third oldest university in Greece, established in 1920. It consists of 6 schools (Plant Sciences, Animal BioSciences, Environmental and Agricultural Engineering, Food and Nutritional Sciences, Applied Biology and Biotechnology, Applied Economics and Social Sciences) and 13 departments. Its campuses can be found in 4 cities alongside the 3 farms of the university that are situated in agricultural regions.

AUA operates as a leader in the scientific fields it operates in where it contributes to the development of geotechnical, agri-food and related sciences, both nationally and internationally. It is a pioneer in academic research and innovation for the development of methods and practices that contribute to tackling and adapting to climate change, as well as other sustainability issues. These methods include digital agriculture, precision agriculture with the use of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, modern approaches via forecasting models, robotic agriculture, application of environmentally friendly new chemical agents, energy balances to reduce footprint, flower entrepreneurship with a given emphasis to the “from farm to fork” principle.

Research in the AUA promotes multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs) and particularly goals 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17.

AUA extends to 4 cities and maintains farms in three others. The campus in Athens normally hosts thousands of students and hundreds of employees and researchers daily. It is a vibrant urban node with facilities that include a vineyard, a plantation, valuable collections of plant material, a museum, experimental facilities for plants, and aquatic organisms, , 13 greenhouses, agricultural machinery, a sericulture and beekeeping unit, a composting unit as well as a library and an information centre. Therefore, AUA is a small city within the city and the need for environmental management and reduction of its carbon footprint is a concern.

AUA realizes its role as an important factor in the pursuit for sustainable development for the city as well as its students and employees. The university’s strategic objective is to improve the well-being of the AUA community and visitors as well as to highlight the AUA campus as a metropolitan park by:
• reducing the university’s ecological footprint
• promoting sustainable mobility
• promoting circular economy
• increasing engagement of students and staff
• increasing cooperation with social partners
•highlighting dynamics and added value through synergies and networking for sustainability

The target is to link AUAs operations to the UN SDGs and the agenda of 2030.

The AUA Environmental Management Office’s actions fall within the scope of environmental, national and EU policies. The EWWR 2023 action “CONTAINER”, focuses on waste packaging prevention  by a targeted one week  pilot action involving the main canteen (contractor) and the University’s technical services and environmental management office. Its main activities include:

• Incentives by the University canteen to avoid take away plastic  and other cups or containers and caps.
• Creation of at least one public tap with drinkable water, next to the canteen’s main sitting point, in order to discourage excessive consumption of water in plastic bottles.
• A reminder campaign, notifying the 15 spots in the AUA buildings that host tap coolers for drinking water.
• Tap water quality analysis in various sampling spots within the University, by an accredited laboratory of the University, in order to verify drinking suitability of tap water.
• A campaign to dissiminate analysis results to the university community, and raise awareness towards packaging waste.

Main objectives of this action week are:

• to increase environmental awareness by projecting (poster, e-mails) EWWR 2023 material.
• To reduce the use of plastic and other coffe cups and caps, and of plastic bottles of water by 10 % during the action.
• To exploit the action’s results in order to prevent packaging waste by turning some EWWR activities into permanent practices (maintain the canteen restrictions and incentives).
• To establish periodical water quality analysis from various sampling taps within the university.
• to create synergies by increasing networking and alliances between the environmental management office and the University members and contractors.

Main target groups are the academic and administrative stuff of the University and students, and last but not least visitors and external colleague (contractors working on site). They account for more than 8000 people.

The action is expected to deliver a new aggreement between the canteen contractor and the University as far as the incentives for waste prevention are conserned, as well as a new outdoors drinking water tap together with the activation and reintroduction of the existing ones.

Dissemination of the material and the EWWR Action week is expected to include:

• Group e-messages to all users of the University Server and contractors, informing about the EWWR action, waste packaging and the water analysis results.
• Announcements with attached material uploaded on the University’s web address and facebook account.
• Door to door visits in the AUA labs.
• In situ presence during the action week in the canteen area.

Performance Metrics and Achievements:

The EWWR 2023 action week’s effect is going to be monitored based on the following indicators:

• No of coffee cups avoided, during and 1,2 and 4 months after the event.
• No of plastic caps avoided, and
• no of plastic bottles avoided.

Although, comparisons will be made based on sold items by the canteen, the possitive effect is expected to be bigger considering avoidance of unknown inputs (e.g. bottles of water brought in the campus from stores outside the university).

Related Sustainable Development Goals: SDGs 4, 11, 12, 13.