Hosting a sustainable event
Are you about to host a gathering including food and transportation? Please follow these guidelines for organising a sustainable event at Lund University. Also please do not forget about the University procurement policy before hosting your event.
In addition to the legislative requirements regarding hygiene, working environment, environment, product information etc that apply to food serving, the Sustainability Forum has listed additional requirements that need to be set for an event to be considered sustainable. The list is primarily based on information from the procurement authority on sustainability criteria for food and meal services, questions in the Sustainable Event self-evaluation, the County Administrative Board of Skåne's requirement list for suppliers of food and drink, the Swedish Food Agency's advices to reduce environmental impact and requirements linked to University's participation in Fairtrade City Lund.
General demands
Suppliers of coffee, cakes, lunch, dinner and so forth needs to have a well documented strategy for how to minimise all use of resources (food, plastic and paper waste).
Food
Always choose organic and Fairtrade products before all else. Also attach signs about what is organic and Fairtrade to display on the servingtable. Fairtrade Sweden have signs that can be ordered from their website.
Fairtrade Sweden (In Swedish) – butik.fairtrade.se
All food should be lakto-ovo-vegetarian. If you need to serve meat, then choose organic. Fish have to be marked with MSC, ASC or KRAV.
Encourage your supplier to use seasonal raw materials to minimise effect on the climate. Please choose organic potato or others before rice.
Always make sure you have options for vegans and those intolerant to lactose and gluten.
It is very important to display signs telling if the food contains any typical allergens. Never serve peanuts, almonds or sesameseeds since people allergic might suffer great damage.
Beverages
Always serve fresh tap-water in jugs. Never serve bottled or canned water.
Coffee, tea, wine and beer should be organic and Fairtrade.
Make sure to serve organic milk and organic oatmilk to go with the coffee and tea.
Waste
Meals should not be served on disposables but could be done so if the premises lack porcelain or the possibility to do dishes.
If disposables are necessary please use the ones least harmful to the environment. Never use disposables made of plastic produced with fossile ingredients. Biodegradable plastics (plastics that can be broken down into carbon dioxide, water, and minerals through natural processes) are an alternative, but make sure to properly sort all waste and recycle everything. Zero waste should end up in landfill.
All food waste must be kept aside and taken to recycling where it can be turned into Biofuel or be composed.
If you can read Swedish then please read the waste manual.
Lunds universitets avfallshandbok – medarbetarwebben.lu.se
Distribution
Suppliers should use fossil free transportation and be encouraged to coordinate all transportations to achieve efficiency.
Travels to and from the event
Participants and speakers at events shall be encouraged to travel with public transportations. In order to avoid unnecessary long travels, digital arrangements should be taken into consideration.
Cleaning
Detergents and similar must be marked with "Svanen" or similar. Please do not overdose the use of detergents.
Documentation
When evaluating events, it is advisable to include questions about how requirements according to this list are met. Then you can find opportunities for improvement for the next time you organize an event. If you do not already have your own follow-up system, we can, for example, recommend a system for evaluating sustainable events that Region Skåne has been developing.
Sustainable events in Region Skåne (in Swedish) – eventinskane.com
Questions
If you have questions about this list please contact Sustainability Forum.