Soil Association and Carbon Trust create sustainable catering standard

Soil Association Certification and the Carbon Trust have partnered to develop a sustainable catering standard, which will consider waste, energy and water use.

The new standard will complement the existing Food for Life Catering Mark, which provides an independent endorsement for caterers that are taking steps to improve the food they serve.

It will be launched as a pilot scheme and caterers are being urged to express their interest to be recognised as a business that demonstrates exemplary practice in environmental sustainability.

The standard will also help businesses reach ‘good' or higher on DEFRA's Balanced Scorecard.

Dr Peter Bonfield, who originally developed the Balanced Scorecard, said: "This partnership between Soil Association Certification and the Carbon Trust is an exciting opportunity to inspire businesses and caterers to improve their environmental performance and show a clear commitment to buying fresh, healthy, locally sourced, sustainable food and champion British producers via the Red Tractor scheme.

"The Food for Life Catering Mark is making it easy to verify a good or excellent score across all areas of the DEFRA balanced scorecard for public procurement, including food production, social and economic value, quality and now resource efficiency too."

According to the Carbon Trust more than eight billion meals a year are served by caterers in the UK across 260,000 sites.

Darran Messem, managing director of certification at the Carbon Trust said: "Even small improvements in the environmental impact of each meal served can add up to a huge total. Fortunately in many cases large improvements are possible."

To register interest in the scheme contact: eyeats@soilassociation.org

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