A celebration of sustainability in catering at the Cool Food Pro Forum

October 10, 2022

On Wednesday 28 September 2022, the Cool Food Pro Cross Channel Forum brought together leaders from the catering and sustainability fields to inspire and motivate change within the sector.

The main event focused on sharing best practices and exploring the ways in which caterers can create sustainable menus using the Cool Food Pro carbon calculator. Users of the calculator shared their experiences and achievements inspiring others to join the low-carbon journey.

Attendees had the chance to hear from experienced speakers making waves in the hospitality industry, such as representatives from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), The Soil Association, and renowned catering group, CH&CO.

Lauren Cox, Senior Project Coordinator of Cool Food Pro at PECT, says: “Faced with today’s climate emergency, it was hugely encouraging to see so many motivated catering industry experts at the Cool Food Pro Cross Channel Forum who are keen to do more within their organisations. At the Forum, we explored one tool in the toolkit – the Cool Food Pro carbon calculator – but it is through sharing solutions and experiences that we can make impactful progress on our net-zero carbon journeys.”

In the afternoon, there were a variety of workshops available for organisations to work closely with experts in reducing food waste and building climate friendly menus, as well as demonstrations on the key features of the Cool Food Pro calculator.

Cool Food Pro is a cross-border project, with partners based in England and France. There was an event in France hosted in parallel and attendees got to regularly check in with the French team sharing experiences and successes.

The Cool Food Pro Forum may have already taken place, but you can still sign up as a Cool Food Pro catering site to get access to the free carbon calculator. If you want to improve your impact on the planet and reduce your catering carbon emissions, check out www.coolfoodpro.net.

The project has a total budget of €1,58mil of which €1,09mil has been funded by the European Regional Development Fund via the Interreg France (Chanel) England programme. There are four other partners: Soil Association, Université of Bretagne Occidentale, Maison de l’Agriculture Biologique du Finistère, and LABOCEA.

Visuals on the day were provided by Mixed Vision Media.