Healthy and sustainable food, surprisingly tasty, organic, seasonal, local and at a fair price? At VITO in Mol, too, our members are buying good food from the area!
After a successful introduction at a lunchtalk under the motto ‘VITO takeaway for fair, local and organic fruits and vegetables’ in May and the great interest of the VITO employees, the VITO Food Team in Mol officially starts!
The VITO food team is an initiative of 3 VITO employees in the framework of the OnePlanet@VITO programme.
Who is ‘Voedselteams vzw’?
Voedselteams vzw seeks to promote small-scale, sustainable agriculture and horticulture and to develop local economies. Food teams want to play a pioneering role in the short chain and alternative business operations and make them accessible and attractive to a wide audience.
The network Voedselteams activates people with regard to sustainable food:
- From the region;
- Produced in harmony with the four seasons;
- With respect for the earth and nature;
- And fair: the producer reserves the right to autonomous choices and pricing.
In the meantime, Voedselteams has grown into a movement of about 180 teams and some 200 producers spread over various regions in Flanders. In addition to ecological, economic and social objectives, the food teams have the ambition to exert pressure on various aspects of food production on a political level.
More information can be found on www.voedselteams.be.
How does the VITO Food team work?
- Our producers: Biohoeve from Westerlo (for fruit and vegetable packages) and Het Mosterdzaadje from Mol-Achterbos (for loose seasonal vegetables)
- Weekly delivery at VITO, Mol
- Monthly payment
OnePlanet@VITO
“We only have one planet”
VITO’s research is based solidly on sustainability. However, VITO also wishes to play an exemplary role by continuing to make its organisation more sustainable. We are doing this in the OnePlanet@VITO project.
Director HR and general services Agnes Bosmans explains the action plan.
“VITO is a leading international research and advice centre that accelerates the transition to a sustainable society. With this leadership comes the responsibility to carry out what we prescribe ourselves. On 18 October 2016, Dirk Fransaer, Managing Director of VITO, signed the Belgian Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). VITO also published its concrete ambitions for 8 of the 17 SDGs, published on the website of TheShift.”
What does this mean for VITO as an organisation?
“Our ambitions cover two levels: on the one hand, VITO contributes to the realisation of the SDGs with its applied research. On the other hand, as an organisation we wish to play an exemplary role and become a leader in the area of sustainable organisations. These ambitions come together in OnePlanet@VITO.”
How will VITO realise this?
“There are a few quick wins we already realized in 2017, such as sustainable business trips or the replacement of the paper towels in the toilets by airblades.
As a research organisation, however, we have also translated our ambitions into 7 concrete challenges. We want to make all new VITO buildings climate-positive and our mobility must become climate-neutral. Moreover, we want to become a paperless research organisation.”
How are VITO’s employees involved in this project?
“Sustainability is one of our core values. VITO employees are therefore the driving force behind OnePlanet@VITO. The project builds on their ideas and solutions. That’s why, at VITO, we have a great intrinsic motivation to make Flanders and the world more sustainable, as well as our workplace. The VITO Food team has grown from within the organisation.”
