Catering

By choosing sustainable catering you ensure that the food on your plate is honest, environmentally friendly and produced with care for people and animals. It saves a lot of waste, CO2 emissions and deforestation. Additional benefits: sustainably produced food is often much tastier and more nutritious. Smart purchasing and clear communication with the crew are two important conditions to successful sustainable catering.

Tips & Tricks

Food and drink

  • Follow the seasons; more flavorsome, cheaper, less pressure on the environment and fewer food miles.
  • Keep an eye out for the right labels such as MSC fish quality label, Fair Trade, Beter Leven and EKO
  • Make good deals with a wholesaler that purchases sustainable, such as Odin.
  • Introduce a recurring weekly meatless day or cook completely vegetarian: Meatless Monday or Veggie Friday.
  • Throw away as little as possible and be creative. Esther Akkerhuis of Bacon & Beans makes risotto balls from leftover risotto for example.
  • Get rid of plastic water bottles. Install one or more taps with tap water and make sure your crew has access to reusable water bottles or glass. You can get reusable water bottles and portable water taps for on location through Join the Pipe. For public and free water tap points in The Netherlands, check this excellent overview: Drinkwaterkaart. There are more than 1500 options! For public water points abroad, check the site of the Refill Ambassadors. Click here if you want to read up on our 2017 tap water pilot with participation of over 20 productions.
  • Give a Join the Pipe or KRNWTR bottle with your logo as a crew gift, with hook, so that everyone can easily hang the bottle from their belt, like IJswater Films has done before.
  • Don’t let the crew serve themselves. Most people put too much on their plate. If they want more they will come back for seconds.
  • Arrange doggy bags with leftovers that the crew can take home at the end of the day. Or use the leftovers in food for the next day or make a wrap snack.
  • Most waste comes from disposables. Use (second hand) dishes that can be washed or biodegradable plates, cups and cutlery. Please check whether this cutlery is really biodegradable.
  • Use ecological detergents and cleaning products without chemicals.
  • And perhaps the most important: inform the crew. You avoid a lot of misunderstanding, questions or ambiguity by making clear what you are trying to achieve as caterer. Watch this movie about Esther Akkerhuis of Bacon & Beans, in which she tells how she makes her catering more sustainable.

Handy apps and sites for shopping sprees

Waste and cleaning

  • Separate your waste. Paper, plastic, glass, organic waste, batteries, everything goes into a separate container. Find out in advance where the nearest collection points are.
  • Use only non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning products. In the ‘green’ supermarket you will find a wide range. Or look online: for example at De Weegschaal.
  • Buy these kind of items in bulk (it’s possible at De Weegschaal for example), so you have less packaging material.
  • Do not use disposable wipes or TORK-rolls but washable sponges and dishcloths.