As a venue we inspire our clients to make green choices. Additionally, as university caterers' we understand that catering operations can have a significant impact on the environment and we therefore strive to ensure that every aspect of our operations complies with environmental regulations. Small changes to how we run our events all help to save the planet.
We are committed to hosting greener meetings at our venue. From the moment we engage with an event organiser, our sales team aim to incorporate online meetings to reduce commutes as well as maximising the use of digital technologies to reduce our paper trail and create efficiencies.
We understand that we play a significant role in the food chain, both as the procurers and providers of food. We recognise our responsibility to provide healthy and sustainable practices in all aspects of our food sourcing, production and service, in line with the NHS Eat Well Guide.
- We have identified and actively promote our Sustainability Commitments
- We have achieved a silver Green Meetings award, the Green Tourism standard created specifically to assess the sustainable practices of meeting and event venues
- We were awarded 3* in the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Food Made Good Sustainability rating (July 2022) demonstrating an increase of 20% since our previous assessment
- Our menus actively promote vegan and vegetarian choices
- Our ingredients are sourced locally and seasonally to reduce carbon emissions. Take a look at some of our trusted UK suppliers, the area they operate in and the products they produce.
- We serve cans of Life Water, an infinitely recyclable alternative to plastic bottles, which also fund clean water projects across the globe
- We participate in Refill and have 27 free tap water stations across our campus where people can access free tap water, helping them to live with less plastic
- We only use sustainable fish certified by the Marine Stewardship Council
- All of our chicken is Halal, and we've adopted the Better Chicken Commitment for 100% of the chicken (fresh/frozen/processed) in our entire UK supply chain and will meet all the standards in it by 2026 at the latest. Take a look at our progress reporting here, which represents data from 3 out of 4 of our chicken suppliers.
- Our tea and coffee is Fairtrade and we are committed to gaining a University and College Fairtrade Award by spring 2025
- In our bedrooms, we re-use bed linen and towels where possible and we only provide sustainable bathroom toiletries.
Our Environmental Policy covers all of Royal Holloway's catering and is reviewed annually by the Head of Catering and Conference Services.