Klimato is currently partnering with eight UK universities – with more interested in joining - to help them calculate, communicate and report on their food emissions.
The list includes University of Bristol, University of Nottingham, University of Manchester, University of Reading, Falmouth University, University of Exeter, Churchill College (University of Cambridge) and Glasgow Caledonian University.
Our company’s carbon calculator tool is being used by them to reduce their carbon footprint, cut business costs, boost sales and improve student satisfaction.
Specifically, it allows catering teams to:
- Calculate the climate impact of the food you serve using the online carbon footprint calculator and get insights on carbon heavy ingredients to avoid. Calorie and allergen information is also provided.
- Communicate the carbon footprint of food items with carbon labels on menus and other surfaces (ie. digital menus), to help your customers make more informed food choices. Design your menus easily in the tool.
- Report on emissions from the food you sell, track progress over time with monthly reports and get insights on how to reduce emissions to reach your goals.
How do universities use the tool?
It is specifically designed for busy chefs with not much time on their hands. Chefs can easily input their recipes and identify which ingredients have a high climate impact and thus make real change to their menus.
At the University of Bristol, senior head chef Rob Smith says: “We have recently joined Klimato to aid us in mapping the carbon footprint of all the dishes we produce.
“We have found this extremely useful in how we plan and put our dishes together. We would highly recommend Klimato to anyone looking to reduce their carbon footprint.”
Another university ready to get going with their sustainability efforts is University of Nottingham. It will be the first university in the Midlands to roll out Klimato carbon labels, starting with trials in its catered halls, as well as Japanese restaurant Saijokai and Café Mama’s in the Portland Building on University Park.
The food served accounts for around 8% of the university’s total carbon footprint, so there’s a big margin for change and a real learning opportunity for the catering team.
Sarah Cawthorne, environment officer for catering at the university says: “The tool helps us understand the carbon impact of our actions and therefore empowers people to make more informed decisions.”
It also allows organisations to adapt their recipes to ever-changing weekly menus and share recipes across different sites, saving both time and resources.
Carbon Labels and Menu Design
Klimato helps universities communicate the climate impact of their dishes to their customers through carbon labels which are put on their menus. The aim of the labels is to inform the students and inspire them to eat more sustainably so that the low impact dish becomes the desired choice.
Sarah Cawthorne adds: “Young people nowadays are becoming more aware of the consequences of their choices. As a student living in catered accommodation, there’s a limit to what you can do yourself; although food is such an individual choice, this shows that you can make a difference with it.
“I’m hoping it will empower them to feel like they can make a small change.”
Our experience is that student responses to the labels are positive. In September 2022, for example, our team visited the University of Bristol’s Welcome Fair and talked to the students about sustainability. They completed a survey and the student feedback was insightful.
We found that 78.6% said they were more likely to dine at a sustainable restaurant, while 64.3% felt that having carbon footprint information on a menu would make them more likely to visit that establishment.
Students increasingly demand transparency and a variety of dietary requirements - vegan, flexitarian and vegetarian - so having a variety of plant-based options and the ability to show the carbon footprint of each is important to students.
Setting goals and tracking progress with reports
The tool also allows the creation of sustainability reports to track carbon emissions - monthly, yearly or for a specific event. It means sites such as Churchill College, Cambridge can set goals, track individual canteens as well as oversee the food emissions created by the whole organisation.
Sebastian-Petre Petrescu, catering assistant at Churchill says: “We provide the carbon footprint labelling for each menu item using Klimato to inform our customers about climate impact and encourage them to choose climate-friendly foods. At the end of the month, we upload all the sales data from the spreadsheet on the Klimato web app to get the monthly report.”
Communicate Your Sustainability Initiatives
The tool can help you to communicate how sustainable your catering operation is infographics, website copy, social media posts and in talking to customers and staff to raise awareness and educate about the relationship between food and climate.
What about the rest of the public sector?
While universities are among the early adopters of this sort of technology it doesn’t mean they are the only ones able to take part in this revolution. Essentially anyone working with food who is looking to do it more sustainably is welcome to join the family.
Other customers of ours include Sodexo Oasis Academy schools, Midshire Signature Services and Added Value Services.
If you’d like to lower the carbon footprint of the food you serve at your public sector establishment, then visit: https://klimato.co/