Sustainable food

BU's catering partner Chartwells has achieved the Soil Association's Food for Life Silver Catering Award for the catering outlet in our Fusion Building. This means that the food served is traceable, freshly prepared and locally sourced where possible. Chartwells also implement the following sustainable food practices as part of their contract with BU:

• Use locally sourced produce, such as bread from Long Critchel bakery and Blue Vinny cheese.
• Ensure that menus change with the availability of seasonal produce with at least two major items per dish served in the season in which they are naturally abundant.
• Ensure that all eggs are purchased are from a free-range production system.
• Ensure that no fish is served that appears on the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) 'red list' and seek to serve MCS-certified fish, maximising the use of fish from the MCS 'fish to eat' list.
• Use only 100% Red Tractor Assured meat and dairy products and follow Feel Good Food Days guidance on meat and dairy portions.
• Purchase 100% organic milk.

Chartwells have also recently introduced Honest Bean triple-certified coffee (Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and organic) while SUBU has introduced 'Change Please' coffee into Dylans Bar, which means every cup sold is supporting homeless people to get back into work.

Bournemouth University and our Students' Union are proud to have had Fairtrade status for over 12 years and in 2022 became one of only three universities to achieve the maximum 3 star rating within the Fairtrade Foundation/NUS Fairtrade University and College award. 

Fairtrade is about better wages, working conditions, climate change resilience, and independence for farmers and workers across the world. We include Fairtrade wherever possible through selling Fairtrade products in all outlets across our campuses including an array of food items, Fairtrade clothing in the SUBU shop and seeking to purchase Fairtrade uniforms for our frontline staff such as those working in cleaning, security and catering. 

BU holds events annually for Fairtrade Fortnight. In 2022, the theme was once again “Choose the World You Want” and we hosted a number of events including a ‘guess the ethical logo’ competition run by SUBU, an international speaker event and looking into digital activism. In term 1 of this academic term we also hosted our first ever 'Climate Justice Now' student debate against Middlesex University London. 

There are always opportunities to link your assignments to Fairtrade, as Events Management students found through hosting the ‘Fairtrade around the world’ event which aimed to promote the importance of Fairtrade, how it benefits the growers and also how easy it is to buy Fairtrade products from flowers to cosmetics, which are now widely available. Other students this academic year have investigated fast fashion, ethical cocoa production, palm oil and deforestation caused by beef production through the Globally Responsible Business Practice unit.

The Fairtrade Steering Group is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Fairtrade Policy and for raising awareness of Fairtrade. To see what we've been doing, you can read our Fairtrade Report 2020-2021, our Fairtrade action plan (updated March 2022), and the results of SUBU's latest Ethical Trade survey.

Staff and students are welcome on this group: if you would like to join, email us at [email protected].

We work to minimise food waste throughout our operations. Our bins have separate sections for collecting food waste which is then sent for anaerobic digestion to create energy and a soil improver. 

Our team at Chartwells work hard to reduce their food waste in production. Their Winnow system tracks any waste production to highlight key areas of waste. Last year, the team found vegetable scraps formed a proportion of waste, so they have worked to both reduce the amount of scraps left over and to repurpose them in meals, for example as a base to vegetable stock. 

Did you know you can grow many fruit and vegetables from leftover scraps, like carrot tops and pineapple heads? Fill your windowsill with homegrown vegetables using some tips from the Food Revolution Network.

In 2020, we increased our disposable coffee cup tax to 30p across all outlets at our campus to encourage the use of reusable mugs. Last year, over one-quarter of all hot drink purchases were made using a reusable mug or the ceramic mugs offered by Chartwells. We also redesigned our BU reusable mugs so they are now made of sustainably-sourced bamboo and are sold at Chartwells outlets for £5.99 each. 

Reducing single-use plastic has been a target for many over the past couple of years, and we are taking similar steps. The Chartwells team have removed 10 key single-use plastic items including sauce packets, stirrers and takeaway containers from our catering operations.  

We have also introduced a 10p tax on all single-use water bottle sales. To support our staff, students and guests avoid single-use plastic water bottles, in 2020 we installed 3 new water refill points across our campuses to increase the accessibility of free drinking water.  

We are proud to have joined the Dorset Sustainable Palm Oil Community project. We have worked with our suppliers to ensure that where palm oil is present in our on-site food, it will be sourced from accredited sustainable sources. This process is facilitateed through annual supplier audits. By doing so, we know that we are helping to protect wildlife around the world from the impact of unsustainable agricultural practices.

Read more about the Dorset Sustainable Palm Oil Community.

BU actively works to support staff and students leading sustainable food projects by providing growing space on campus. You can get involved through a variety of opportunities:

• Campus Collective is a student society which grows its own food and plants in a polytunnel on Talbot Campus 
• Faculty of Science & Technology host growing space outside of Christchurch House on Talbot Campus for staff and students to tend to 
• ResLife have created community growing spaces in many of its halls of residence to support sustainable food, community action and student wellbeing. Read more about ResLife. 

With the support of the university, groups of students and staff have also found creative ways of working within the confines of the University’s city-based sites to create small food growing spaces including herb gardens and fruit tree areas. You can read more about our biodiversity work on our Sustainable Campuses page and get in touch with us at [email protected] about an opportunity.

Did you know you can grow many fruit and vegetables from leftover scraps, like carrot tops and pineapple heads? Fill your windowsill at home with homegrown vegetables using some tips from the Food Revolution Network!

Sustainable food is a fantastic area to form a project around. From calculating the carbon emissions of our menus to measuring the impact of changing our food layout, there is a lot of work we are in the process of, and we'd love to have you join in!

We've already had some excellent student projects that have improved our offering, with Chartwells and SUBU both having offered work placements to BU students. Last summer Alice Evans, a BSc Nutrition student, completed her placement with the Chartwells team to create a new selection of vegan products. After generating ideas, developing recipes and creating marketing, Alice's diverse and nutritious vegan salad boxes and 'Blitzer pots' have not only been introduced across BU but nationally!

Enriching society is a core aim of life at BU, and that counts for work with food too! BU staff and students have got involved in a variety of projects, including:

• Supporting Bournemouth and Poole to achieve Fairtrade Town status
• Being founding members of the Bournemouth & Poole Sustainable Food City network, which joined only five other cities with the title
• Supporting community-based food partnerships such as the Slades Farm community project
• Research and outputs, such as The Eating and Drinking Well with Dementia Toolkit, to help to create better understanding, support and accessibility to nutritional wellbeing.