Green Gown Awards 2021: Campus Health, Food and Drink - Nottingham Trent University - Winner

A DINEamic sustainable journey

We strive to be an influential leader in corporate responsibility, global citizenship and sustainable business within the education sector, the catering industry and beyond, seeking out opportunities for investment and development and continually sharing and delivering best practice globally. Our achievements have resulted in a catering offer which exceeds our customer expectations in terms of variety, nutrition and above all sustainability. From procurement to plate we set ourselves challenging targets which we continue to achieve with passion and determination.

Our significant achievements have included a compelling reduction in food miles, waste, and energy consumption, and a considerable expansion of Fairtrade, organic, MSC, Red Tractor and plant-based produce. We have improved sustainable catering education within the university and wider community and have worked with suppliers to improve their sustainable credentials. We are passionate about engaging and educating our staff, our students, and the wider community in what can be achieved both with small steps and giant leaps.

Top 3 learnings:

• We discovered that small changes can contribute substantially to the bigger picture.
• We avoided being overprotective of our knowledge and through sharing made a greater impact.
• We made sustainability an essential not an optional in all of our practices.