Pressemitteilung

Demands for Reducing Mensa Emissions

Sustainability has been established as one of the core values at TUM and is a major driver
of change at our university. Ambitious reduction goals for greenhouse gas emissions
have been set. Even though reducing emissions is a central focus at TUM, food emissions
from our canteens have remained nearly unchanged over the last years. Many attempts
by students from LMU, HM and TUM have been made in the past to influence the Stud-
ierendenwerk to lower these emissions. Unfortunately, the Studierendenwerk has not
been willing to make significant changes to its food offerings.

A rough estimate based on CO₂ emissions for the different dishes offered shows that
approximately 2,000 t CO₂ are emitted annually for food consumed by students and staff
of TUM at the different canteens of the Studierendenwerk, roughly representing 10% of
all TUM emissions not related to electricity or heating. In comparison, if the Stud-
ierendenwerk were to eliminate the top-emitting 25% of dishes, this would lead to an
overall reduction in emissions of approximately 45%. For the computations, see [1].

The Referat für Umwelt conducted a Mensa survey in collaboration with the Stud-
ierendenwerk, with over 9,000 participants [2]. In this survey, around 80% of partici-
pants stated that eating at least one meat dish per day is either “neutral”, “not important”,
or “not important at all” for them. Additionally, the survey reveals that sustainability is
one of the leading factors influencing food selection. Therefore, a gradual but significant
reduction of food emissions (which will lead to a reduced amount of meat dishes) ap-
pears to align with the interests of TUM members and aligns with the goals set below.

We demand a 40% reduction in food-related emissions compared to 2024 levels by
the end of 2029. This reduction should be implemented in a stepwise manner, with a 10%
decrease each year, and should not result in higher prices for dishes. Furthermore, to
ensure transparent monitoring of food-related emissions, we demand that the Stud-
ierendenwerk systematically tracks and publishes CO₂e emission data every six
months.

Since previous efforts from Student initiatives did not lead to a significant change in
Mensa emissions, we demand the leadership of TUM to collaborate with the Stud-
ierendenwerk and the other universities to achieve these goals and align its food offer-
ings with TUM’s climate goals.

[1]: Computation of Emissions
[2]: Survey Results