The olive knows.
Together we design.

ruralCOMMONS is a research project funded under the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, focusing on intangible cultural heritage in rural areas. Zeytince is one of the project partners.

The project’s Türkiye pilot is run by Zeytince and İzmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH) in Karaburun, İzmir. Over four years, the work focuses on cultural commons, agroecology and community resilience.

ruralCOMMONS treats intangible cultural heritage not only as something to preserve, but as a living body of knowledge that supports agroecological transition, strengthens communities and shapes a shared future.

Like-A-Pro is a Horizon Europe project that aims to move alternative proteins from a niche choice into the mainstream. By developing 16 new products from 7 novel protein sources, it seeks to make them accessible, available and acceptable to everybody, everywhere.

Running from November 2022 to October 2026, the project brings together 41 partners from 17 countries. It co-designs solutions in 11 living labs with stakeholders across the protein value chain, from growers and producers to retailers and consumers.

Zeytince runs the project’s living labs in Türkiye, in Urla and Karaburun, bringing alternative proteins to the table through gatherings such as Table Talks.

The LIKE-A-PRO project (No. 101083961) is funded by the European Union under the topic "HORIZON-CL6-2022-FARM2FORK-01-07".

Living Labs

We co-designed alternative proteins at the same table with producers, chefs, researchers and consumers, and designed each gathering’s invitation, programme and menu ourselves. Click a gathering to see all its documents.

1. 1
   24 October 2024

   Protein Transformation: New Tastes, New Choices

   Rast UrlaInvitationMenu
2. 1
   21 November 2024

   Protein Transformation: A New Dish

   Rast UrlaInvitationMenu
3. 1
   19 March 2025

   An Alternative Protein Story: From Shelves to Table

   Rast UrlaInvitationProgramme
4. 1
   27 March 2025

   An Alternative Protein Story: Your Choice Shapes the Future

   KırkmerdivenInvitationProgramme
5. 1
   25 May 2025

   The New Language of Food: Education and Messaging for Alternative Proteins

   Olive Academy, İnecik · KaraburunInvitationProgramme

From the field

On the table

At every lab we tasted alternative protein products; we designed the menus and feedback cards around the flow of each gathering.

Menu · 24 October 2024Protein Transformation: New Tastes, New ChoicesParticipant cards · 24 October 2024Protein Transformation: New Tastes, New ChoicesMenu · 21 November 2024Protein Transformation: A New DishParticipant cards · 21 November 2024Protein Transformation: A New Dish

Reports and factsheets

Anonymised findings from four iterations, seven sessions and more than 224 participants.

Living Labs in Türkiye · Factsheet

How do alternative proteins reach the table ?

Findings from four living lab iterations in İzmir, 2024–2025

Download the factsheet ↓PDF · 2 pages

• 224+participants
• 4iterations
• 7sessions
• 6venues

Key findings

1. 01Knowledge is very limited

   Most participants, including gastronomy students, heard about alternative proteins in detail for the first time.

2. 02Tasting changes minds

   At tasting-menu gatherings, products were highly rated for taste, aroma and appearance.

3. 03Price and access decide

   A clear price gap discourages choice; variety in İzmir is limited and mostly soy-based.

4. 04Awareness, not bans

   Participants prefer visibility and awareness over taxes and bans.

5. 05Labels are not enough

   People want QR codes with environmental impact, protein content and production conditions.

6. 06Trust and positive language

   Flavour-led, familiar messages resonated; fear-based ones did not.

Four iterations

May 2024Iteration 1 · Perceptions and choice editingDEU Faculty of Gastronomy · 64 participants

• Most participants were hearing about alternative proteins in detail for the first time.
• They asked for awareness and visibility rather than bans or taxes.
• Requests for tastings and recipes shaped the next iteration.

Oct–Nov 2024Iteration 2 · Tasting menusRast Urla · 2 rounds · 17+ participants

• Products were highly rated for taste, aroma and appearance.
• Participants want them more visible in restaurants and cafés.
• Price and plastic packaging drew the most criticism.

March 2025Iteration 3 · Shelves, menus and labelsRast Urla, Kırkmerdiven · 2 rounds · 27 participants

• Most preferred separate shelves; younger people mixed shelves.
• Separate vs integrated menus split roughly half and half.
• Participants want QR codes on labels for more information.

May–June 2025Iteration 4 · Messaging, advertising and educationOlive Academy, Ege Univ., Kültürpark · 2 rounds · 116 participants

• Positive, flavour-led messages resonated; fear-based ones did not.
• Food knowledge comes mostly from family, not school.
• A “Food and Climate” course was the most supported idea.

Full reportComing soon

PSLifestyle was a European project that set out to bridge the gap between climate awareness and everyday action. Led by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, it ran in 10 countries, including Türkiye, from October 2021 to September 2025.

At its heart is the free Lifestyle Test, which shows the environmental impact of food, mobility, housing and consumption habits and offers a personal action plan. The test was co-designed with citizens in living labs across eight countries and has been taken more than 700,000 times. Users created over 74,000 personal action plans from its sustainable living tips, with a combined reduction potential of around 107,000 tonnes of CO₂e a year.

Led by Zeytince, Türkiye reached around 25,000 test takers, the third-highest participation in the project after Finland and Norway. Zeytince ran the living labs in İzmir and created the Turkish content of the test and the app.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101037342.

In 2015 Zeytince decided to give its education work a permanent home by founding an Olive School, choosing Karaburun as its field of work in line with İzmir Development Agency's (İZKA) Peninsula Sustainable Development Strategy. With permission from the relevant public institutions, the former primary school in İnecik village, empty since 1992, was leased to the association.

The project was realised with the support of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality: a new building of the same dimensions replaced the old one, the grounds were landscaped, and Olive Academy opened its doors in May 2017.

Today the school is both a stopover and information point on the Ephesus–Mimas Cultural Route and the Olive Road, and a centre for learning. It hosts research on olives and ecology, training on local products, workshops from philosophy to astronomy, harvest festivals and route walks, with a focus on creating new income and job opportunities for women and young people on the peninsula.

Valued both economically and culturally, the olive has been one of the İzmir Peninsula’s most important crops since antiquity. The world’s first known modern olive oil press lies in the ancient city of Klazomenai in Urla, and the area is estimated to hold 68 monumental olive trees aged between 300 and 2,000 years.

The Olive Route was created for the Peninsula, focusing on İzmir’s historic bond with the olive. Passing through Güzelbahçe, Çeşme, Seferihisar, Menderes and Selçuk and completed through the work of Zeytince, the route brings together monumental trees, olive oil presses, water sources and factories, revealing the region’s olive culture while offering a way to experience its unique natural landscapes.

Connecting travellers with producers, the route links to the Delice Network of gourmet cities, which İzmir joined in January 2015 through a partnership of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and the İzmir Chamber of Commerce, making the Peninsula part of a gastronomy tourism route.

Led by Assoc. Prof. Meneviş Uzbay Pirili, the ecological literacy seminars bring students from different faculties together on the Ege University campus to learn the language of the Earth.

Launched on 5 December 2019, the seminar series aims to build a shared vision of sustainability and sustainable ways of living among students. The core principles and practices of sustainable living are explored across disciplines such as economics, ecology, history and philosophy.

Pomace is a collaborative design research between the Netherlands and Türkiye, exploring a creative circular practice through a series of design experiments with bio-based materials. It brings together designers and makers from both countries.

The project is inspired by the intrinsic circular qualities of ancient olive cultivation in Karaburun, İzmir, and argues that understanding this practice and culture is a way to understand circular design in depth.

Olive production and its by-products leave biological residues that are still to be examined from a design perspective. Pomace studies them through hands-on research with local designers and producers, using local production systems, and documents the results across different media.

A movement examining the seed-to-table food cycle in search of a shared, equitable food ecosystem.

A field study carried out in 2017 with 302 olive growers in the villages of İnecik, Kösedere and Eğlenhoca in Karaburun, in partnership with İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and Olive Academy.

Instead of chemical pesticides, the “trap bottle” method, using organic fertiliser inside the bottles, was applied, protecting 50,000 olive trees from harmful flies by entirely natural means. Just 15 days after the bottles were hung, each one had caught 20 to 25 flies.

Growers improved the quality of their harvest without chemicals, and following these results the method was planned to be extended across the whole basin.