The Sustainable Food Commitment aims to reduce the environmental impact of our food provision on campus, focusing on activities with the largest climate impact.

Now the initiative has run for a full year, we are pleased to announce 10 of the top key achievements and targets that have been met.

  1. 150,606 hot drinks* were in reusable cups, saving a huge amount of disposables from going to landfill.

  2. Over 3,860 Munch Boxes were sold* in the last academic year, saving thousands of meals from going to waste.

  3. All cow's milk used in the hospitality department now comes from a local dairy in Chew Valley, just 16 miles away.

  4. The Market and Fresh sold 548 Too Good to Go bags of short dated food*. This equates to avoiding 1370 kg of CO2e.

  5. Campus Services successfully launched the Community Larder.

  6. Our hospitality outlets use a calendar of seasonal produce, to make sure they use vegetables that are in season where possible.

  7. There is now no charge for oat milk in hot drinks, due to a successful Vertically Integrated Project with students.

  8. The Exchange reusable cup scheme has been extended to include cold drinks, so it can now be used for bubble tea, milkshakes and smoothies.

  9. More sustainable sourced products: all fish in our hospitality outlets is certified as sustainable (with the exception of tuna steaks). All eggs, even liquid egg used is now free range.

  10. Our coffee tender has recently been renewed to ensure that all of the coffee we sell on campus is Fairtrade.

(*Based on sales data taken from 26 September 2022 to 25 September 2023.)

Awards and accreditations

Campus Services has recently been awarded four stars at the Zero Waste Awards, part of which recognised our efforts in reducing food waste.

Areas of focus for 2023/24

There are still many targets remaining, with the following identified as a focus for the next year:

  • Continuing to reduce single use plastic where possible, focusing on food containers and various sundry items.
  • How we can encourage more use of reusable food containers.
  • Launch of a new Pizza Exchange reusable pizza box scheme in lime tree.
  • Ways we can reduce food waste at large catered events on campus.
  • How we can reduce energy and water use in hospitality outlets through staff training and improved auditing.