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A closer look at sustainable catering
Ridge View Residential College, NUS | NUS | April 2017
RVRC’s annual Sustainability Symposium showcased the project work of RVRC undergraduates in identifying, understanding, and devising potential solutions to everyday sustainability problems in waste, food waste, water, energy, behaviour etc.
RVRC’s commitment to sustainability did not end with undergrad project work, but extended to include the planning and execution of the symposium as well.
Sustainable Initiatives undertaken
The event, made up of approximately 300 undergraduates, faculty, staff and invited guests, took place at Ridge View Residential College, a Green Mark GoldPlus certified building.
Name badges & lanyards – All name badges and lanyards provided at the event were collected back. The lanyards did not have the year or event name printed which will allow it to be re-used.
Sustainable Catering – RVRC worked with Sodexo Catering to plan a sustainable menu with food waste measures in place. This was the first event I had attended where 1. Sustainable Palm Oil, 2. Antibiotic-free chicken, and 3. Sustainably produced fish were provided alongside a whole slew of delicious vegetarian options like quesadillas, sweet and sour veggies, tofu.
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•Plates and re-usable cutlery were provided.
•Glasses were provided for drinks.
•NO plastic stirrers were provided for hot beverages. Only re-usable tea spoons were supplied.
•NO styrofoam cups were provided for hot beverages.
•Non-bleached, bamboo serviettes were provided.
MENU
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•Sustainable Palm Oil
•Hormone, Anti-biotic and Chemical free chicken
•Marine Stewardship Certified (MSC) fish sourced from regional fisheries to reduce food miles.
•No prawn/shrimps or tuna was used as it was unclear whether it was from sustainable fishing methods
•Salmon was avoided because of too many food miles
•Largely vegetarian menu
oVegetables were largely from Malaysia (reduce food miles)
oHerbs were supplied from United World College community garden
oNo salad as there leftovers to be much leftover based on observations from previous events.
•Dessert was regionally sourced fresh cut tropical fruit platter (reduce food miles)
•Fair Trade Coffee and Tea
