Food
Actions for this theme are relevant for Catering and Production departments. We strongly encourage collaborating across departments and sharing knowledge to maximise the positive impact of your efforts and to avoid silo working.
The food system, which includes agriculture, processing, packaging, transport and waste, is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and it is also highly sensitive to climate disruptions such as extreme weather events. Within the screen industry, improving catering sustainability goes beyond food waste and relies on small but well-informed decisions that can have a significant impact over time.
For instance, we find that:
- Removing beef from the menu is the easiest and most relevant action to cut carbon on a menu, as beef has an exceptionally high environmental footprint (including carbon emissions, land use, water and biodiversity loss). Removing beef is also more effective than adding a plant-based option that may be ignored. However, for even more impact, you can provide exclusively vegetarian and/or vegan meals.
- Reusable crockery often offers a more effective and sustainable solution. Disposable foodware, even when labelled recyclable or compostable, often ends up in landfill due to coatings and contamination that makes it unrecyclable.
- Organic waste, when not separated, is usually incinerated or landfilled, contributing unnecessarily to GHG emissions. Separating organic waste for composting or anaerobic digestion turns bio-waste into a valuable resource, which can help enrich soils or be used to make a biogas, that can in turn be used to generate electricity and heat.