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Sustainable UCL

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Sustainable Food and Drink

UCL has established a Healthy and Sustainable Food Policy and Strategy to ensure that UCL meets high environmental and socially responsible standards for the food offered through its catering partners, and to encourage healthy and sustainable food production and consumption.

Food and Drink Commitments


  • Ensure that 50% or more of our food offers provided are vegetarian or vegan. Champion our #PoweredbyPlants campaign to deliver the majority of hospitality as vegetarian and vegan).
  • Ensure all our standard tea, coffee, bananas, chocolate (confectionary, cocoa powder, drinking chocolate) and sugar are Fairtrade certified.
  • Provide carbon information on food we make in-house to allow consumers to make environmentally informed food choices. Encourage behaviour change towards lower impact foods.
  • Maintain Food Made Good accreditation by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

Read UCL's Healthy and Sustainable Food Policy

What UCL is doing


  • Awarded 3 (out of 3) stars Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) Food Made Good award.
  • Jointly awarded the 1-star Fairtrade University and College Award, following a student-led audit in 2022. 
  • Successful roll-out of 50p cup charge for disposable coffee cups. 
  • Vegetarian and vegan default hospitality choices #PoweredbyPlants.
  • Established the UCL Sustainable Food Working group - a new collaborative pan-UCL group of representatives from UCL caterers, Sustainable UCL, Union and Student Societies, to share best practice.

UCL’s sustainable food initiatives

Food at UCL


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The food at UCL is provided by Gather & Gather.

> Find their sustainable food projects and commitments at foodatucl.com/sustainability.
> Refill your water bottle; use our water cooler map.

Sustainable events


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Ordering vegetarian food, reducing disposable plastics and reducing food waste at events all help UCL meet our sustainability goals.

How to order sustainable catering at UCL.