Green Gown Awards 2014 - Food and Drink - Plymouth University - Winner

Local. Sustainable. Fresh.

Plymouth University is delivering a model of sustainable catering which is founded upon local and ethical sourcing, increasing community access to healthy and fresh food, and developing its cafes as an informal learning resource. The University is educating on the value of sustainable food purchasing and removing unsustainable food and drink from our service.

The University is investing in its local South West producers and has adopted formal policies to ensure this is supported across the University. It invests time in strengthening their business model and routes to market through supporting their work towards sustainable food schemes such as Food for Life and LEAF.

The University contributes to city-wide initiatives to alleviate the lack of access to healthy food in the city by providing community access to its sustainable cafes and supporting small scale producers.

Top 3 learnings

1 Understanding procurement rules surrounding food purchasing which go against or restrict a buyer purchasing local food to enable you to meet both those needs
2 Local, sustainable and fresh food can be delivered within student and education establishment pricing structures which challenges expectations
3 A sustainable catering model can be introduced and replicated across industrial
catering from cafes, street food units, high end events’ catering and hospitality.

What the judges say ...

Plymouth have achieved a great deal in a number of areas. The judges felt that the work Plymouth have being doing is a great example to others on embedding sustainability in the Food and Drink sector across the institution.

What it means to win ...

“The Green Gown Awards are the gold standard for sustainability in higher education - and it is that gold standard that our catering team is striving to reach across a range of initiatives. Winning this Award provides our catering staff and the University with a great platform to share that work with a wider audience.”

Professor David Coslett, Deputy Vice-Chancellor

Videos

• Local. Sustainable. Fresh. (click to hide)