The Venues Collection Launch Carbon Labelling Across All Menus

The Venues Collection has announced the introduction of Carbon Labelling across all their menus. This ground breaking initiative will put valuable information into the hands of event organisers and empower them to make informed decisions when choosing the food to be served at their events.

Jo Austin, Sales Director, The Venues Collection said: “Organisers have the responsibility of choosing many hundreds of meals for their events, so their choices have a significant impact on sustainability. Sustainability anxiety is very real, so we are helping to overcome this by arming organisers with information; knowing the impact that a meal has on the climate gives organisers more ownership and control over what they are choosing for their delegates and the total impact their event will have on the climate. No food is off limit; each of the items on our menus are colour coded with varying shades of green and an easy-to-understand scale so organisers can see at a glance where each item sits on the carbon emissions scale. Just like a healthy diet, where ‘good’ and ‘bad’ food are eaten in moderation, this approach allows organisers and delegates to easily eat carbon consciously when visiting us.

“Sustainability is important to delegates and so we encourage organisers to share this information and the actions they have taken to create sustainable events. We are very excited and really looking forward to seeing the impact that Carbon Labelling will have on the food choices made by organisers, and how this impacts on delegates and ultimately the planet.”

The Venues Collection is working with Klimato; a third-party business that tracks global food sourcing and movement to create up to date carbon footprint information about ingredients of a dish. In the food industry climate labels are based on calculations of the emissions of greenhouse gases presented as kg carbon dioxide equivalents (kg CO2e). The calculations in turn are based on values assigned to each stage of the production of the food through life cycle assessments (LCAs). Some foods, such as a chickpea patty will have very low carbon emissions compared to meals such as spaghetti Bolognese; taking the middle ground would steer organisers to dishes such as poached cod.

Carbon Labelling is the latest stage in The Venues Collection’s Meetings for Change initiative, which is a five-point charter focussing on sustainable food options. The venues already have ethically sourced tea and coffee served with Red Tractor Assured milk; buffet lunch, dinner and breakfast options that prioritise British seasonal ingredients, minimal food waste and plant-forward options; hydration stations that use fruit and vegetable peelings to flavour the water to remove single-use plastics and reduce food waste. They also have a sustainable approach to the use of stationary, ‘take what you like, but only take what you need’.

The Venues Collection is part of Lime Venue Portfolio who are rolling out Carbon Labelling across all of their venues. The Collection is the residential venue business of Compass Group UK & Ireland and has seven event and training sites across the South West, South East, and East & West Midlands.