Sustainability within RNCM Food and Drink

At the RNCM, we’d like the quality of our food and drinks to leave a lasting impression on you, not on the environment.

We take steps to ensure that we’re operating in a sustainable, environmentally responsible way in everything that we do in our Café Bar and events we host.

Some initiatives we have undertaken

• In 2022, we appointed Cafeology as our sole coffee supplier. Cafeology are an independently owned coffee company who purchase direct from coffee growers in Central and Southern America. You can find out more about Cafeology’s ethics and sustainable practices on their website. In the same year we also increased our range of alternative milks, all of which are available as a latte or cappuccino.
• Our takeaway hot drink cup is 100% recyclable, which means no part of it needs to be separated in order for it to be recycled. The paper material yield after recycling can vary depending on the quality of the paper processing mill, but after the recycling of our cups we expect a 97.9% yield of recycled material for reuse.
• We sell an RNCM branded Keep Cup and offer a discount on each hot drink purchased when you bring your own reusable cup. Alternatively, feel free to ask our team if you prefer your drink served in crockery.
• We have removed single use plastic glasses from the Concert Bar for those taking drinks into our auditoriums and have replaced them with branded, reusable half and pint cups from Happy Cups.
• 35% of our Cafe Bar Menu is vegan and we have a dedicated vegan section in our grab and go fridge.
• We operate a SMART menu where we use the same ingredients across numerous dishes. We constantly review our menu and remove less popular dishes in order to reduce wastage. We also buy non-perishable items in bulk.
• We replaced our plastic takeaway cutlery with wooden or composable plant-based options.
• We turn our waste cooking oil into biodiesel, thus reducing energy consumption and food waste. We employ Filtafry, whose cooking oil recycling services naturally preserve the environment by extending the life of cooking oil.
• Our chopping boards are regularly swapped out for a resurfaced set using the Nella Cutlery resurfacing service. This saves money, ensures we are food safe and reduces plastic waste.

Some initiatives we’re working on…

• Creating a Food Waste Reduction Policy.
• Investigating the segregation of food waste to generate renewable energy and create nutrient-rich biofertiliser.
• Reviewing all packaging used within the Department to see where we can switch to more sustainable options.