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Sustainable Catering

We are proud to offer a comprehensive range of seasonal, local and ethically sourced meals across our main catering outlets.

We're dedicated to promoting and embedding a sustainable food culture at NTU and beyond. Our Catering team works in partnership with our Sustainability and Procurement teams. Together they ensure we consider ethical, social and environmental factors. This informs the decisions we make about the products and services we provide.

We continually strive to be more environmentally friendly. Last year, we took 115 tonnes of waste destined for landfill and sent it to a biodigester to create green energy.

Find out about sustainability at NTU and read our sustainable food and drink policy.

Find out more about the Catering team's great work.

Our Refectories have a 'Three Star Food Made Good' accreditation by the Restaurant Association. They serve:

  • homemade dishes prepared daily
  • nutritionally balanced healthy meals
  • MSC-certified fish
  • Red Tractor-certified meat
  • locally grown vegetables
  • vegetables and potatoes that have no added salt.

We offer a range of dishes for different dietary requirements. These include vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and halal. Look out for the symbols on our menus.

For advice on allergens, please speak to a member of our team. They'll be happy to advise you. You can also email us.

Food wastage

picture of NTU foodshare allotment

We have a number of procedures in place to both minimise food waste and ethically repurpose and donate any surplus. These include:

  • Monitoring plate waste in our refectories to ensure our portion sizes are not too large.
  • Strict batch cooking processes within our kitchens and cafes to avoid over production.
  • Utilising as much of an ingredient as possible – for example stalks from vegetables, tomato/pepper tops for soups/sauces.
  • Any surplus sandwiches, paninis, fruit pots are donated to local charities each week (YMCA, Mathew 25:40, Tracey’s Street Kitchen). Any subsequent food waste that cannot be donated goes to anaerobic digestion at our local waste management provider's site and is used for energy production.
  • Unsold sandwiches are left at reception for students to take at the end of the day.
  • Taking part in an audit every two months called Your Business is Food which helps us monitor food waste and investigate ways to reduce this further.
  • As we operate as a multi-outlet operation, we tend to move stock around throughout the day and any unsold products are relocated to later opening cafés when a particular unit closes.
  • We investigated taking part in the 'Too Good to Go' scheme, however this lends itself more easily to smaller, public establishments and logistically it is very difficult for us to get involved due to the public not being able to access our outlets.

Love Local Nottingham

We've compiled an alternative map of Nottingham – full of independent cafes, cycling facilities, ethical businesses, and things to do in the great outdoors.

The map is viewable on Google Maps. Please note that Internet Explorer 9 or higher (or an alternative browser such as Google Chrome or Firefox) is required to view the map.

Water Fountains

We have several water fountains located across all of our campuses which provide free cold water for staff and students. You can find their locations here