PD project Judith Ogink provides Stayokay Terschelling with concrete tools
Stayokay Terschelling is already actively committed to sustainability. By working with Judith Ogink's Professional Doctorate (PD) pathway, hostel manager Martine van de Velde also wants to accelerate the reduction of plastic use. Martine sees an important advantage of a PD track over a PhD track: ‘It is more operational and leads to something tangible immediately.’ She says this in an interview with NRIT's R&T Magazine that can be found on the professional doctorate site.
Sustainability is a major theme at Stayokay. The collaboration with Judith Ogink focuses on reducing plastic use, specifically around school trip lunch boxes. Previously, these were packed in plastic with a packet of drinks and a straw, which Stayokay wants to eliminate.
Intensive collaboration between PD candidate and Stayokay
Judith's PD project ‘The Plastic Soup Experience - Influencing litter behaviour by a circular solution made of recycled littered plastic’ is in its first phase, calling on schools to let students bring their own cups. Stayokay is facilitating the research by providing data and enabling focus groups with pupils. The problem she is taking up with Judith is very much business-driven, according to Martine. ‘I think that approach works well: Judith has a particular research question, but is mainly concerned with theory. I can help Judith with that by feeding her with examples from practice.’
Martine van de Velde expects the PD trajectory to yield concrete results, such as doing away with plastic packaging and thinking about more sustainable alternatives to the granola bar. The challenge lies mainly in getting teachers on board with the behavioural change. If the interventions are successful at Terschelling, they can be implemented at other Stayokay branches as well.
Scaling up from one test location to all branches
Martine stresses the importance of cooperation with the location manager for a successful PD programme: ‘The link with the location manager is essential. They know what is going on in the field.’ If the interventions at Stakokay Terschelling catch on and are effective, they can also be implemented at Stayokay's other branches. ‘That is already the first gain, because it means that around 20 hostels will benefit from the experiences gained here.’
Read the full article (in Dutch) on the professional doctorate site.