Caterlink Islington Schools
Why achieve the Green Kitchen Standard?
Caterlink Ltd Islington had already achieved the Food for Life Served Here Award, like many other school caterers in London, and wanted something to show off their green credentials, as well as setting them apart from the competition.
Neil Fuller, Managing Director for Caterlink Islington
What was already happening?
Making sure that all of their schools were compliant with the Green Kitchen Standard was a challenge. Luckily, many environmental practises were already in place, such as monitoring food waste and ‘switch-off’ policies, all food served was on washable plates and cutlery, and there were recycling facilities for staff.
What was the main challenge?
In the 58 schools that Caterlink Islington operate in, they did not own any of the kitchens or the equipment within them. This meant that they were unable to sub-meter energy and water usage for their kitchens. All energy and water usage was calculated on a school level. This meant that Caterlink had to implement their own energy, water and waste monitoring activities within each kitchen, such as weighing and counting the bags of food waste, monitoring the number of dishwasher loads to estimate water usage and logging equipment switch on/off to monitor energy usage.
Other changes that have been made
To improve their score in the management and policy section. Caterlink created new written commitments for each of their schools and for energy, water and waste to make sure their environmental practises were adhered to in each of their kitchens and linked to their existing companywide policies.
What’s next?
Caterlink are keen to shout about their achievements and make sure they communicate the information to their (kitchen-based) staff and their customers (the schools) about their continuing efforts to reduce energy, water and waste, their targets, new operating procedures, and to make sure that their staff and customers are keen to work with them to improve their energy efficiency.
