Should CEU go 100% Plant-Based?
by Johanna Öövel and Carolina Gabler (PBU), 16.10.2025
On the evening of October 15th, an unusual report reached our desk.
A student was spotted pacing anxiously around the CEU campus: eyes bright, heart heavy, and face full of an unmistakable desire for climate justice. Could it have been… you?
Witnesses claim this mysterious individual seemed to:
Believe that universities should practice what they teach and transform their research into action.
Believe that the climate crisis is an emergency, demanding bold institutional change.
Believe that plant-based diets are a key step toward environmental sustainability and reducing emissions.
Believe that students, united, can spark meaningful, lasting change.
If this sounds suspiciously like you, consider this your official summons:
Report to the Plant-Based Universities Campaign Social Launch on Friday, October 17th, at 18:00, in the Math Faculty of the University of Vienna (Oskar Morgenstern Platz 1). Sign up here!
Your mission: join forces with students across Vienna to reshape campus food for a greener future.
Failure to appear may result in:
Uncontrollable inspiration
Excessive pacing (without results)
Lack of essential pub quiz knowledge
A sudden craving for our no-cheese toast and our 2 Euro beer
The Plant-Based Police have their eye on you — but in a supportive, solidarity-based way.
For further interrogation, continue reading below.
1. What is the Plant-Based Universities initiative? PBU is a Europe-wide and student-led climate justice movement that campaigns for 100% plant-based menus at universities. The climate crisis is advancing at an alarming speed and this movement holds the opinion that universities should not be neutral and passive regarding climate change — they have the responsibility to actively fight the climate crisis and call on other institutions to do the same. Part of PBU’s theory of change is that universities are the ideal place to spark an overarching transformation of the food system, because of their societal, political and cultural power. Science has demonstrated the transformative potential of switching to plant-based diets and universities, who act as a bridge between science and society, totally contradict their own research by not bringing about this needed change. Additionally, PBU does not believe that it should be the responsibility of individuals to go out of their way, sacrifice time, effort and convenience in order to live more sustainably. Institutional change is needed to effectively decrease emissions, while taking off the pressure of sustainability efforts of individuals.
2. What’s the scientific background of the campaign? The food system is estimated to account for 21 – 37% of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by the IPCC. This is a huge proportion and, therefore, cannot be ignored in policy making and sustainability measures. Globally, plant-based products account for 29% of food related emissions, while animal products for 57%, despite plant-based products forming the basis of all diets. This is not only due to the animals’ metabolism. It can be traced back to animal products’ inherent inefficiency of resource use — they consume a lot more calories in their lifetime than they end up supplying. The food animals consume uses up heaps of farmland and water, while naturally being connected to monoculture farming, and the associated pesticides and artificial fertilizers. Illustrated in numbers, this means that food related land use could be decreased by 76%, the CO2eq by 49%, terrestrial acidification by 50% and water eutrophication by 49% if the world switched to plant-based diets. Due to the high animal product consumption in Austria, the average plant-based diet emits 70% less CO2eq than the average omnivorous one and 42% less than the average vegetarian one. The harms associated with factory farms in particular should also not be ignored. Among them are the spread of infectious diseases, excessive use of antibiotics leading to antimicrobial resistance or the formation of toxic gases like ammonia or hydrogen sulfide, leading to local air and water pollution.
3. What would change look like at CEU? The goal of the campaign is 100% plant-based menus at CEU. This includes the catering, the cafeteria and vending machines. Regarding catering related to individual departments, the strategy is for departments to sign a policy motion, in which they commit to 100% plant-based catering. Especially due to the fact that catering is not paid for by individuals, but provided directly by CEU, this should be as sustainable as possible — to embody CEU’s values in its actions. Regarding the cafeteria, the goal is to sign a policy motion, in which CEU commits to a steady increase of plant-based food, until it is 100% plant-based. While there is the need for immediate change, the longevity and stability of changes have priority. This steady increase should therefore be accompanied by a structured scientific knowledge transfer and economic incentives to choose the sustainable, plant-based options.
4. Are those changes inclusive? While to some a fully plant-based offer sounds restrictive, the range of plant-based options has evolved massively in the last years. From a whole foods, healthy diet to pastries and junk food the plant-based cuisine can cater to a variety of preferences. Additionally, plant-based food automatically caters to a wider range of dietary needs; it can be consumed by and is the basis for meat-eaters, vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians and flexitarians. An entirely plant-based offer can therefore be seen as more inclusive than mixed offers — often non-halal meat options exclude Muslim meat eaters or non-vegan dessert excludes vegan people from the sweet course. Plant-based catering removes 5 of the 14 most common food allergens — eggs, fish, milk, molluscs and crustaceans — and is compatible with major religious dietary restrictions. This campaign can also be used as a way to amplify student voices in the food procurement process. Even in its current form the cafeteria isn’t regarded as especially inclusive by most students, regarding pricing or allergy friendliness. Generally in canteens the idea of total freedom of choice is just an illusion — there is always a restricted number of items to be chosen from. Just like a canteen offering either pasta or curry does not force the consumption of pasta or curry onto individuals, a plant-based canteen does not force plant-based food onto people. On an individual level, many believe in the need to reduce animal products, rather than eliminating them entirely. PBU compliments this approach, by facilitating plant-based food procurement. On an institutional level, this campaign can have huge impacts, while the extent of influence on the individual in most cases would still be relatively small — most people have one meal or a snack per day provided by CEU at most. What also should be considered is that, especially regarding environmental politics, in the Global North entitlement to certain freedoms often gets mistaken for entitlement to luxuries. Benefits and burdens related to unsustainable customs are distributed extremely unjust globally. Policies which aim to counterbalance this do not infringe genuine freedoms.
5. How can I help? Everybody can join the campaign team and take on a role fit for one‘s strengths and interests. In order to join you can message the campaigners on Instagram (@plantbasedunisceu) or in the WhatsApp community. Some tasks include planning and attending negotiations with the administration, organizing outreach events, preparing educational posters or social media content. Generally it is always helpful to talk about the topic, inform others and show support for such sustainability measures. The CEU campaign team has a petition, which everybody with a CEU email address can sign. You can find the link on their Instagram!
