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Cityserve and the Environment – Academic Engagement

Published: Monday, 16th May 2016

We are delighted to be working with and supporting Valeria de Laurentiis, a University of Birmingham PhD student who is studying the impact of food procurement sustainability.

Valeria says:

“I am a PhD student at University of Birmingham, very passionate about sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles. The aim of my research work is to identify how sustainable food choices can be promoted by the catering sector, in particular at primary and secondary school level, with the purpose of reducing the overall impact of food consumption on the environment. This is how I came across Cityserve, looking for someone willing to share with me information on their menus and procurement choices, in order to start a journey together where we could test a new method to assess the environmental performance of catering providers.

This collaboration has just started (April 2016) and the aim is the development of a case study analysis in the following 3 months. The outcome will be an assessment of the environmental performance of 3 menus currently served by Cityserve, and of the 3 menus that will replace them in the new academic year. The indicators of environmental performance used will be Carbon Footprint and Water Footprint and the analysis will highlight meals performing well (low carbon/low water use), and meals performing not as well and how those could be improved to ensure the delivery of a sustainable service.”

Here at Cityserve we welcome academic engagement and look forward to utilising Valeria’s findings in the future menu development.