Domestic Food and Sustainable Design: A Study of University Student Cooking and its ImpactsAdrian Clear, Mike Hazas, Janine Morley, Adrian
Friday, and Oliver BatesLancaster University
Outline
• Home cooking & sustainable HCI
• What design goals?
• Method
• Findings and design implications
• Scope of impacts
• Key role of cookingPhoto: gundamwing4132 (via Flickr )
Why cooking?Literature Wider Sustainability HCI
Food Systems &
Choice
Diet change & food production
(27% GHG in UK)e.g. Berners-Lee et al (2012)
Carlsson-Kanyama et al (2005)
Nudging in supermarkets Sustainable urban food
culturese.g. Choi et al (2010) Kalnikaite et al (2011)
Cooking
Direct energy use
Oberascher et al (2011)Oliveira et al (2012)
Wood & Newborough (2003)
Augmented meal planning & cooking:
nutrition, sociality
e.g. Grimes & Harper (2008)Bonanni et al (2005)
sustainability?
Kirman et al (2010)
Study design
• 31 students, 4 flats, 21 days
• Interviews
• Sensing
BedroomBedroom
Bedroom
Bedroom
Kitchen Bedroom
Physical SensingSocket-level power
“Hobcam:” motion-triggered camera
Whole-house, aggregate power
30-second stop-motion video of sample of Hobcam images [omitted]
Cooking session annotation
Cooking session annotation
One cook, single portion
Cooking session annotation
Components used
Back-right
Back-left
Cooking session annotation
Foods observed
Jarred sauce
Pasta
Cooking session annotation
... and quantities
(160g)
(100g)
Foods observed
Jarred sauce
Pasta
Cooking session annotation
Cooking method
Boiling
Heating
Cooking session annotation
Cooking method
Heating
Boiling
(no lid)
(no lid)
Use of lid?
Cooking session annotation
Changes in control position
Findings
Other food
Relative Impacts
Cooking Energy Emissions (22%)
Waste
Otherdevices
Indirect Emissions (78%)
Design Areas
Diet Change
Technique & Method
Technique and method
Photo: reutC (via Flickr)
Frying vs. grilling
33m 30s170g
9m 50s
113g
0.118 kWh 0.965 kWh
Average 1.2 kWh/kg Average 6.7 kWh/kg
Pasta vs. Pasta
41 mins16 mins7 mins
Pizza vs. Pizza27 minutes
...53 minutes before cooking
Oven switched on
85 minutes
36 minutes later...
...oven switched off
Pizza ready
55 minutes
Design Board: ApplianceGoal Possible Applications
Encourage more efficient methods &
techniques
Cooking-specific energy feedbackSpecialised appliances
Mitigate timing “errors” and
“forgetfulness”
Better interaction design Smarter cookers
Scope: 10-20% cooking energy; 2-4% overall GHG
Diet
High Impact
Low Impact
Jarred sauceChicken
Chicken nuggets
Bacon
Sausages
Cheese
Chips Onions
BreadPasta
A convenient diet“typical student
food”
“all those kind of really easy things”
0
20
40
60
80
jarred sauce
chicken
pastavegetables
sausages
chipspizza
breadbaked beans
ricepotatoes
tortellini
baconfrozen veg.
tinned tomatoes
eggnoodles
mince beef
steakreadymeal
fishsoup
61
70
87
88
41
43
21
9217
33
8
1540
22
8 29
27
109
8 107
Embo
died
Ghg
em
issio
ns (k
g CO
2e)0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
jarred sauce
chicken
pastavegetables
sausages
chipspizza
breadbaked beans
ricepotatoes
tortellini
baconfrozen veg.
tinned tomatoes
eggnoodles
mince beef
steakreadymeal
fish
61
69
87
66
41
43
20
8817
32
8
1541
21
8 29
27
109
8 10
Embo
died
GhG
em
issio
ns (k
g CO
2e)
• Repeated moderate- to high-impact foods
Meals
Jarred sauce
Chicken
Chicken nuggets
Bacon
Sausages
Cheese
Chips OnionsBread Pasta
Chicken, pasta, and sauce
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Chicken Pasta Sauce Cooker
Total: 3.57 Kg CO2e
Grilled potatoes
0
0.125
0.25
0.375
0.5
Potatoes Cooker
Total: 0.62 Kg CO2e
Design Board: Sustainable DietsGoal Possible Applications
Make indirect emissions more explicit to “cooks”
Help keep infrequent high-impact foods “special”
Meal tracking and feedback
Make alternative meals easier
Interactive meal planners Recipe generation On-the-spot advice
Scope: 20-30% indirect emissions; 17-24% overall GHG
Organization
Cooking & Eating
Teaching
Sport
Employment
Socialising
“Simple” & “Easy” =• Short cooking time (< 20mins) (~70%)
• Single cooker component (69%)
• Few “ingredients”
• Repetitive
• Single portion
• Cooking for oneself (90%)
Social cooking
“we keep saying we’re going to cook together but something always
gets in the way”
“one person would go out or one person
would not want what we wanted”
“Whateverʼs in the cupboard”
“I like vegetables and salads and stuff like that but when I buy it it just
all goes off...”
“um, risottos, stuff, pasta and sauce whatever, um shepherds pie ...whatever
ingredients we have”
Design Board: OrganizationGoal Possible Applications
Encourage more shared cooking
Social media appsCollective inventory assistantsFlatmate allocation
Help manage (and change) whats in the cupboard & freezer
Meal and shopping support
Scope: less clear, some direct & indirect emissions
Interdependencies
Cooking Energy
Diet Change
TechniqueSharing
Indirect Emissions
Interdependencies
Cooking Energy
A Different Diet
Technique & Method
Sharing
Indirect Emissions
Summary• An innovative method
• Account of relative impacts of real-life student cooking
• Frames design goals for sustainable cooking
• Highlights key role of cooking in sustainable food transitions
Workshop on Green food technology at Ubicomp 2013 Submissions due: 31st May
http://www.scc.lancs.ac.uk/greenfoodtechworkshop/