Did you know that food accounts for roughly one third of global greenhouse gas emissions?
You may have noticed something a little different about our cafés' menus this year. As part of our sustainability efforts we've partnered with Klimato to add carbon labels to as many of our products as we can to help you make informed choices about your food and drink.
What is carbon labelling?
Basically carbon labels shows you the Co2e emission of a food or drink serving with the rating given reflecting it's relative climate impact (or it's climate footprint). Our carbon labels are provided by Klimato who use a five-tier rating system (from very low at A to very high at E) to help you evaluate the climate impact of food servings. Each label is made up of two things:
- A number: this part shows you the exact emissions produced per serving (kg CO2e/serving)
- A letter: this rating is for a standardised portion amount (400kg) so that you can compare meals fairly.
But you shouldn't check your own homework, which is why we're using Klimato's calculator to work out the score for each of our meals, with all Co2e data for the UK being provided by the Klimato Database.
What do the ratings mean?
The ratings show the carbon intensity (or carbon footprint) associated with producing a serving. This is what is then measured to define what rating a meal/item falls into.
Klimato's rating thresholds have been set to align with 2030 and 2050 Paris Agreement targets which aim to keep global temperature increases below 2°C from pre-industrial levels. The higher the rating the more likely it is we'd overshoot/miss these targets.
Low (B) - 0.40 kg CO2e ≤ carbon intensity 2e
Medium (C) - 0.90 kg CO2e ≤ carbon intensity 2e
High (D) - 1.80 kg CO2e ≤ carbon intensity 2e
Very High (E) - carbon intensity ≥ 2.60 kg CO2e
We can't say it better than the experts, so if you're interested in how the thresholds have been calculated we recommend reading Klimato's Science and Data webpage which goes into more detail about how the labels work and all the factors that go into them.
Our menus
We've added each of our menus that have carbon labels available below so that you can check your favourite drinks and meals :
Coming soon: Café Hot Drinks - carbon labels menu for standard hot drinks served in all our cafés
Please note this is a work in progress, and currently we can only provide the carbon labels for the food and drinks we produce on campus. However, we continue to work with our suppliers (who deliver packaged items such as sandwiches) to encourage them to include carbon labelling on their products too.