AMS Plant-Forward Action Plan : Strategies to Increase Plant-Based Consumer Uptake within UBC Vancouver’s AMS Nest
Year: 2026
Type: report
Abstract: Food systems are a significant contributor to climate change, accounting for approximately one-third of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Bryden et al., n.d.). Within these systems, animal agriculture disproportionately contributes to environmental degradation through high emissions, land conversion, water use, and biodiversity loss (Rockstrom et al., 2025). As large institutions serve diverse populations daily, universities play an important role in shaping sustainable food environments. As an institution, the University of British Columbia (UBC) has made sustainability commitments, such as the Climate Action Plan, which aim to reduce food system-related GHG emissions (University of British Columbia, 2021). This is in alignment with global initiatives to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 (Government of Canada, 2024). The AMS also supports this global initiative through the AMS Sustainable Action Plan, which features a policy requiring all new menus from food outlets to have 30% plant-based items (Wong-Abdul et al., 2023). As a central food hub on campus, the AMS Nest represents a key site for influencing everyday food choices and advancing plant-based dietary transitions. This mixed-methods study adopts a Community-Based Action Research (CBAR) methodology to assess plant-based food offerings at AMS Nest outlets and identify strategies to increase their uptake. Primary data collection consisted of a two-part strategy. First, a comprehensive observational menu assessment was conducted at four AMS Nest food outlets, including the Gallery Patio & Lounge, Blue Chip Cafe, Grand Noodle Emporium, and Honour Roll. Second, we conducted an online survey to collect consumer data from the UBC community. The menu assessment evaluated plant-based availability, menu architecture, pricing, labelling, and promotional strategies, while the quartics surveys examined key factors influencing food choice, including taste, affordability, and awareness. This primary data was supplemented with secondary data from existing literature, such as consumer behaviour research and climate-friendly toolkits to conduct a thematic analysis of high-impact barriers to plant-based consumer uptake. Findings from the assessment indicate that while plant-based options are available across outlets, they remain limited in visibility, quantity, variety, and strategic menu design. In many cases, plant-based items were positioned at the bottom of menus or labelled in ways that reduced appeal, for instance, using dietary terms such as “vegan”, which contributed to lower selection. Survey results suggest that taste, price, naming, and familiarity are the primary drivers of food choice, while environmental and societal considerations play a comparatively minor role. Barriers identified include low menu visibility, limited variety, perceived lack of taste, and price sensitivity, which collectively discourage plant-based food selection despite institutional sustainability goals. Based on these findings, this report proposes several evidence-based recommendations aimed at promoting and increasing plant-based item selection among consumers in the AMS Nest food outlets. Recommendations are ranked based on both effectiveness and ease of implementation, which focuses on low cost and high-impact menu interventions. These include adopting more descriptive and appealing naming conventions for plant-based dishes, improving menu architecture by increasing the visibility, menu aesthetics and positioning of plant-based options, and ensuring competitive pricing through combo deals to reduce perceived financial barriers. Additional strategies include enhancing labelling clarity and expanding the diversity of plant-based offerings to better align with student preferences and values. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”
DOI: 10.14288/1.0454872
Language: English
Subfield: Ecology
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7203659547