Hackathon 2019
Developing innovative business models in the area of food sustainability
Background
Food is a common thread linking all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), given the interconnected economic, social and environmental dimensions of food systems. The Food Sustainability Index (FSI), developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit with the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition, ranks 67 countries on food system sustainability. It is a quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model constructed from 38 indicators and 90 individual metrics that measure the sustainability of food systems across three categories: Food Loss and Waste, Sustainable Agriculture and Nutritional Challenges. The index has three key types of performance indicators—environmental, societal and economic.
The FSI shows that Europe is leading the ranking but still has room for improvement. Nevertheless, food sustainability is a global challenge and there is a need to find new ways how stakeholder in the food chain, producers, traders, suppliers, customers can be brought together to maximize efficiency and sustainability in our food system.
There are already first attempts to make sure that even small producers and farmers from all over the world get the equivalent money for their product and that they produce in a sustainable and ethically correct manner. In addition, there are first concepts which enable consumers to decide on their own what they are buying. However, there is an overall holistic concept and business model missing which considers all stakeholders' interests.
Business challenge
The Hackathon 2019 faculty and panelists posed two major questions for students to answer:
- How might we use intelligent technologies such as low-cost sensors, artificial
intelligence, blockchain and data analytics in the food chain to develop innovative and data driven business concepts? - Interfacing with a network of stakeholders of the food industry from different locations all over the world how might we facilitate new business models for sustainable food production, trade, and/or consumption?
The student teams' mission was to balance the cost and profitability considerations of sustainable food practices to develop a data driven business model to improve food sustainability on a local or global level.
