Café Bhoch3 and Julia
“Sustainability” Insights from a Plant-Based Café
ELLA HARNISCH AND KIMIA KARBALAEI MOHAMMADHOSSEIN IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIA GRÖNINGER
Our interview partner Julia is the co-owner of Bhoch3, a plant-based café in Basel that she has operated with her partner for the past two and a half years. Notably, its excellent reviews on Google Maps show that the café is extremely popular and successful. Julia’s reflections offer valuable insights into how small business owners, particularly in the Global North, conceptualize sustainability in their everyday practices. More specifically, it represents a business that is particularly concerned with promoting plant-based food, with an underlying vision for sustainability. Julia’s approach is notably centered around the idea of sustainability as an individual “lifestyle” choice rather than a structural or systemic issue. As such, her vision aligns with a broader consumer-based model of sustainability, where change is enacted primarily through personal choices rather than collective political engagement or institutional transformation.
“Sustainability” Insights from a Plant-Based Café
ELLA HARNISCH AND KIMIA KARBALAEI MOHAMMADHOSSEIN IN CONVERSATION WITH JULIA GRÖNINGER
Our interview partner Julia is the co-owner of Bhoch3, a plant-based café in Basel that she has operated with her partner for the past two and a half years. Notably, its excellent reviews on Google Maps show that the café is extremely popular and successful. Julia’s reflections offer valuable insights into how small business owners, particularly in the Global North, conceptualize sustainability in their everyday practices. More specifically, it represents a business that is particularly concerned with promoting plant-based food, with an underlying vision for sustainability. Julia’s approach is notably centered around the idea of sustainability as an individual “lifestyle” choice rather than a structural or systemic issue. As such, her vision aligns with a broader consumer-based model of sustainability, where change is enacted primarily through personal choices rather than collective political engagement or institutional transformation.
Climate Justice: Basel in the World is a colloquium at the University of Basel, co-organized in the spring semester 2025 by students from the AG Nachhaltigkeit and Prof. Dr. Janina Grabs. It is supported through funding by Impuls.