St George's Hospital
Reduced Carbon Menus
In a drive to reduce the carbon emissions associated with mealtimes in the NHS and work towards a united goal of reaching Net Zero by 2040, apetito conceptualised a reduced carbon menu and together with on-site caterer, Mitie, approached St. George’s University Hospital in Tooting, London to carry out a pilot on the scheme.
The reduced carbon menu works by making small but smart changes to patient menu cycles, reducing the amount of red meat in favour of ingredients with a lower carbon footprint such as white meat, fish and plant-based options. These small changes ensure to not demonise any one ingredient and have been proven to show no impact on patient nutrition or satisfaction levels.
Following a successful pilot scheme in 2021, the first reduced carbon menus into the NHS were launched in 2022 and have been in play for over three years. In this time, St. George’s Hospital has reported a 17% reduction in its carbon emissions across all the meals it serves – far exceeding the initial expectations when the scheme began and demonstrating the significant impact these small changes can have in reducing environmental impacts.
View the case study in the video below.
Case Study
Back in 2021, apetito approached St. George’s Hospital and Mitie with the innovative concept of implementing a carbon reduced menu to drive down the carbon emissions associated with mealtimes in NHS patient catering.
Sheridan Altass, Patient Catering Manager for Mitie at St. George’s Hospital, explains the team’s eagerness to collaborate with the meal provider on this sustainable initiative:
“We jumped at the opportunity to be involved in such a programme and worked closely with both the Dietetics and Sustainability teams at apetito to get a pilot in motion.
“We’re now in our third year of our carbon reduction menu, following a pilot initially in 2021. The menu is beneficial for us to meet our carbon reduction targets to support the NHS and work alongside the Net Zero reduction scheme.
“This ensures that we’re acting as a responsible business and making a significant contribution to the efforts of carbon reduction across the country.”
With both the NHS and apetito having ambitious goals to achieve Net Zero by 2040, and Mitie’s strong commitment to environmental sustainability, this programme aimed to deliver significant strides towards achieving those goals whilst having no impact on patient choice and satisfaction – or driving extra costs into the sector.
Nutrition
First and foremost, a key consideration of the scheme was ensuring that patients have access to appropriate nutrition and that their dietary needs are not compromised in pursuit of lower carbon – including catering for those requiring specialist diets.
The in-house Dietetics team at apetito worked closely with Annu Sharma, Head of Dietetics at Mitie, who explains how this has been achieved:
“From a Dietetics perspective when introducing the carbon reduced menus, it was important to ensure little to nil impact on patient nutrition and choice – which we worked so diligently to achieve.
“The carbon reductions have been achieved through prioritising ingredients with a lower carbon footprint such as white meats, fish and vegan options.
“It is not about eradicating any one ingredient from the menu entirely but rather making small changes to the menu that are going to have a significant impact.
Quality
As the leading meals provider into the NHS, apetito prides itself on providing high-quality meals, whilst striving to reduce its environmental impacts.
Daniel George, Account Director at Mitie, explains how implementing these menus has seen no impact on the quality or consistency of the meals:
“It was really good to see that we could implement this without compromising on the quality of the food and how it looks. It’s stayed the same, it tastes the same – it’s absolutely wonderful.
Gemma Stott, Consultant Dietitian and Professional Lead at St. George’s Hospital, also praised the consistent quality of the meals and reiterated how changing to these more sustainable options has not faltered patient satisfaction:
“As Dietitians, we are always invited to the tastings and apetito has always been very enabling and accommodating in allowing us to taste and feedback on any new innovations.
“The food is very good quality, and we get great feedback from patients. The reduced carbon menus have been very well received and we haven’t noticed a change in satisfaction levels achieved – if anything, I think they are happier."
Costs
With rising costs an ongoing challenge within the healthcare sector, an important element in introducing this scheme was ensuring it did not drive unnecessary costs into the public purse.
Jenni Doman, Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities at St. George’s Hospital emphasised how cost had not been a concern to the site when implementing the new menus:
“I think the reservation about costs went away quite quickly. We realised that whatever investment we needed to make would be offset by the savings that we would make in the future.”
Expanding
Following the success seen at St. George’s Hospital, it was clear that this scheme could be expanded throughout the NHS to support its overall environmental goals. Daniel George, Account Director at Mitie, explained how he would like to see the reduced carbon menus rolled out much wider across its sites, saying:
“It has given the patients, visitors and the client a vision of where we want to get to as a collaborative between all stakeholders; the Trust, Mitie and apetito.
“We want to be proud to be able to lead the way and give confidence and encourage our other contracts to utilise this menu across the board. We want them to understand that this initiative is a really good one and is really beneficial to both our company and the patients.”
Further adding to the prospect of the scheme expansion, Jenni commented:
“News travels fast. I think we’ve been quite vocal about the success of this initiative, and we will absolutely see other trusts engaging with apetito and Mitie, both on other contracts but I think independently of that too.
“People are looking to us as an industry specialist to explore how this can be developed elsewhere. Let’s be honest, the climate change challenge is everyone’s responsibility and so everyone should be jumping on this, particularly around our healthcare environments.”
Results
Since adoption, the results have been extremely encouraging. St. George’s Hospital has seen its menu drop a staggering 17% in carbon emissions, which far exceeded the initial expectations when the pilot scheme took place. This demonstrates the significant impact achieved through only subtle changes to patient menus – often only changing around two meals on a two-week cycle.
Jenni Doman, Deputy Director of Estates and Facilities at St. George’s Hospital is delighted with the savings seen so far, saying:
“When we talk about the carbon reduction savings, we were estimating an 11% reduction overall with the introduction of the menu.
“But what was really exciting was that it actually over-delivered, and we have seen a 17% reduction which is a phenomenal figure over the number of dishes that we are using as part of our menus.”
The success of this scheme is a testament to the strong partnership built between apetito, St. George’s Hospital and Mitie, and the dedicated collaboration between each partner – evidencing the art of the possible in this space.
Sheridan commented:
“I am very proud to be part of the first carbon reduction menu in the NHS and I think that other trusts need to be on this initiative.
“Together, we can reduce the carbon for the whole of the NHS. We do not work in silo, we work together.”