Sustainable Food Policy

We aim to:

• Innovation: seek innovative solutions to reduce the environmental impact of catering through collaboration with the RCA community.
• CLIMAVORE: embed CLIMAVORE principles in catering provision.
• Regenerative approach: support regenerative practices in the supply chain to improve soil health.
• Local sourcing: minimise food miles and support local farmers and businesses
• Seasonal: serve seasonal produce.
• Plant-based: promote plant-based options, including at least one hot plant-based option in the Kensington Refectory.
• Ethical produce: source ethical and environmentally friendly produce and avoid the use of palm oil, or use palm oil certified sustainable by a recognised scheme when unavoidable.
• Nature: work with suppliers to identify and reduce nature and biodiversity impacts in our supply chain.
• Resource efficiency: maintain efficient use of energy and water in the food production process.
• Water: continue to provide free drinking water across campuses.
• Food waste: minimise food waste and dispose of food waste through anaerobic digestion.
• Greenhouse gas emissions: reduce emissions associated with catering, from sourcing to production to waste.
• Plastic and packaging: minimise the use of plastics and single-use packaging
• Communication: build awareness of initiatives and sustainable food in the College community.
• External verification: work towards implementing a sustainable food framework.

In 2022, we committed to stop serving beef and stop selling drinks in plastic bottles by 2024; we achieved this in 2023. We continue to uphold this commitment.

Climate change, circularity and biodiversity is threaded through the College’s research work and we seek to find opportunities to apply relevant research findings to the College’s operations. In particular, we are committed to embedding “Becoming CLIMAVORE” principles in the food offering, building on the research initiative CLIMAVORE x Jameel at the RCA.

CLIMAVORE questions how to eat as humans change climates. New human-made “seasons” are blurring the lines between spring, summer, autumn and winter, or yearly monsoon events. Instead, periods of polluted seas, soil exhaustion or fertiliser runoff are more influential on the world’s foodscapes. CLIMAVORE is a call to rethink a truly broken food system, and move beyond a carnivore, omnivore, locavore, vegetarian or vegan diet to tackle these new seasonalities, while addressing the extractive and intensive practices that lead to them.

Based on the CLIMAVORE research, the RCA needs to consider how we approach the new seasons of climate change through our catering.

The RCA outsources its catering provision and embeds sustainability into contracts, in line with the Responsible Procurement Policy. Sustainability standards are embedded into tender specification and evaluation criteria. Catering services suppliers must support our overarching environmental principles by:

• Committing to sustainability in their operations
• Reducing their greenhouse gas emissions towards a committed net zero target
• Operating an accredited Environmental Management System, for example ISO 14001
• Working with their supply chain to further make environmental improvements
• Within six months of the contract start date, developing and implementing a robust Catering Sustainability Plan, which can be implemented from day one of the new contract period and clearly measured against the Customer’s wider sustainability objectives

Monitoring and reporting

To give effect to its commitment to its Policy the RCA will:

• Publish its full Policy on its website and intranet.
• Work with the catering services supplier to develop and implement a Catering Sustainability Plan.
• Provide an annual update to the RCA Executive Board.

Any expressions of concern should be made to the Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Committee, who is currently the RCA’s Chief Operating Officer.

The Sustainable Food Policy will be subject to regular review by the RCA Environmental Sustainability Committee and RCA Executive Board. It was last approved by RCA Executive Board in February 2025.