Chartwells at àËÅöÊÓƵ, the university’s catering partner, has received a third 3-star Food Made Good Award in a row from the Sustainable Restaurant Association in recognition of the work their business is doing for people and the planet.
Since 2017, Chartwells at Brunel has offered all catering on campus for students and staff through its cafés, restaurants and street food vans, and for meetings and conferences through its hospitality and delivered catering. Outlets include 1966, a Costa outlet; Hola Pollo, a chicken restaurant that’s renaming to Liberty Grill; The Junction, a student social and dining space; Bite, a Starbucks café; and Change Please, a social enterprise cafe.
The is a UK-based body, set up by influential figures including Henry Dimbleby and Mark Sainsbury, that has set the standard for sustainable food-service businesses globally. Food Made Good, the world’s largest sustainability certification, is their way of accelerating change towards a hospitality sector that’s socially progressive and environmentally restorative.
The 3-star award is the highest Food Made Good certification, given as a reward to scores of 70% or higher for applications that evidence praiseworthy practice across three categories: sourcing, society and environment. Although Chartwells at Brunel has now received a 3-star award three times, it has shown consistent improvement in its scores, increasing from 72% for its first award in 2019 to this year’s 84%.
“Our journey over the past 5 years has seen significant step changes in our operations, and the resulting impact on our sourcing, society and the environment,” said SteveTravis, Partnership Director at Chartwells Universities.
“Every single thing we do is to enhance the student experience. We get feedback from students through termly focus groups, through annual surveys and immediate messages – and then their needs inform our plans.”
Recent changes that have led to enhanced student experience, and to improvements in the Food Made Good evaluation, include:
- Moving to a ‘ghost kitchen’ set-up instead of batch cooking in its canteen – cooking in response to individual food orders, which reduced food waste by 56% in its first year and a further 33% the year after
- An increase in vegetarian and vegan options, to just under half the offering, while maintaining meat options (including halal) to serve the needs of a diverse student population
- Carbon-rating individual dishes through Food Steps, and showing these in Chartwells’ food-ordering UniFoodHub app
- Funded discounts followed by price freezes for the lowest carbon-rated dishes
- Encouraging people to eat in outlets, using washable crockery and cutlery, reducing the amount of cardboard required for takeaway
- Water refill stations across campus, in conjunction with Refill UK
- Working with local food providers wherever possible, and ones with ever-higher animal welfare standards
- Ensuring Chartwells at àËÅöÊÓƵ staff receive, as a minimum, the Real Living Wage, along with a range of wellbeing support channels
- Chartwells’ plan towards net zero by 2030.
“Our future plans are to continue the trajectory of improvements, for the benefit of our people, our community and the environment,” said Steve. “I’m definitely going to be focusing on sourcing more small and medium-sized enterprise products for our social enterprise coffee shop.
“The SRA provided a report which shows areas that we can focus on, and we will continue to gain valuable feedback from students.”
Tim Jones, Catering Support Manager at Brunel, added: “The SRA audit helps us focus and amalgamate all of our catering achievements into a reportable format, which can be utilised in helping the university towards its sustainability and environmental goals.”
Conveying the Food Made Good 3-star award to Chartwells at Brunel, the SRA’s President Raymond Blanc OBE and its Managing Director Juliane Caillouette Noble wrote: “This result is a testament to the work you’re doing across your business for people and the planet, and something you should be very proud of. We hope that your score and report will also serve as an encouragement to keep working to make a positive impact.”
Reported by:
Joe Buchanunn,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 268821
joe.buchanunn@brunel.ac.uk