Green Gown Awards 2016 – Food and Drink – Nottingham Trent University – Highly Commended

You are what you eat

Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is one of the largest and most popular universities in the UK. Nearly 27,000 students study with us across three campuses in Nottingham.

At NTU, our goal is to provide an inspiring learning and teaching environment for students, staff and customers while maximising space quality and operational efficiencies. Energy, passion and an acute sense of social responsibility drive our work.

We are committed to creating a ‘university of the future’; our catering department does this by engaging with and utilising local suppliers, actively sharing ideas with the local community, reducing food miles, working with staff and students to grow fresh organic produce on-site, donating or recycling food waste wherever possible, carefully designing our procurement processes with sustainability and efficiency in mind and being mindful of the whole lifecycle of the food that ends up on our plates.

Top 3 learnings

1 We found that by liaising with local schools in coordinating deliveries we were able to substantially minimise food miles

2 The project has really helped benefit the local community from food donations to the homeless through to utilising local suppliers

3 Working with other departments within the university has helped increase awareness of environmental issues amongst students and staff.