New carbon labelling on menus to help inform food choices

March 6, 2023

According to a 2021 report by the United Nations, food systems account for over one third of global greenhouse gas emissions. FX Plus is working with its campus partners to support sustainability and meet carbon net zero goals.

To support this mission, the Food & Drink team are trialling new carbon labelling on the Stannary hot lunchtime menu, giving staff and students the opportunity to make informed food choices when eating on campus. The team have partnered with carbon labelling experts Klimato to enable chefs to use the Klimato web app, to calculate and report on the total carbon footprint of a meal.

Dishes on the Stannary menus are now labelled with a new low, medium, or high carbon footprint rating. Additionally, menus now display calorie information.

To assess the CO2e emissions of food, Klimato considers the life cycle of each ingredient, from cultivation and farming to processing, packaging and transportation. The Klimato carbon footprint assessment is based on recipe ingredients, production methods and the country of origin.

Lee Hallam, Director of Commercial Operations said: “We’re delighted to improve the menu information available on campus, allowing students and staff to make informed choices about what they eat based on the impact their meal has on the planet. We look forward to analysing the sales data and receiving customer feedback on this new initiative.”

Klimato carbon labelling on menus has been adopted by several universities and was used to carbon label all the food served at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). Klimato said that at COP26, carbon labels contributed to delegates choosing more plant-based food and helped raise awareness of the importance of changing eating habits to combat climate change.

The Food & Drink team intend to roll out carbon labelling on menus at the Fox Café and Sustainability Café in the coming months.

Please contact our Food & Drink team (foodanddrink@fxplus.ac.uk) for any questions about the new food menus.