Food Waste

Burges Salmon: A Going for Gold Food Champion

By Kirsty Green-Mann

Kirsty Green-Mann, Burges Salmon’s Head of Corporate Responsibility, highlights some of the action the law firm has taken to help them become a Going for Gold Food Champion in the blog post below.

Burges Salmon, the Bristol-based independent law firm, has a long-standing commitment to responsible business. We are participants in the UN Global Compact, Members of Business the Community, supporters of the Bristol Equality Charter and Bristol Giving Day, and operate to environmental management standard ISO 14001.

We have a leading environmental practice with a particular strength in providing legal advice to the renewable energy sector. In this context, taking action on food sustainability was a natural fit – particularly noting our focus on the UN Sustainability Development Goals, to help frame action on consumption, climate, energy, health, wellbeing and equality.

We learnt of Bristol’s ambition to achieve the Sustainable Food Cities Gold Award through Bristol Green Capital Partnership and by attending a Bristol City Council ‘Hot Topic’ Meeting. We registered on the Going for Gold website, and after logging existing action, we were delighted to become a Going for Gold Food Champion. The Going for Gold website is a fantastic tool. It provides a range of ideas and possible actions on food sustainability. It’s great that it recognises what is already being done, whilst encouraging improvement too.

Burges Salmon’s action on food sustainability includes:

  • Reducing food waste from meetings. Encouraging people to order less, reducing the amount of food provided and better enabling order cancellations, is addressing this issue.
  • Offering health snack options. People working at Burges Salmon are able to purchase a variety of healthy options at their restaurant, run by caterers BaxterStorey. Food on offer includes a salad bar, vegetarian and vegan options, fruit, nuts, smoothies and other healthy alternatives.
  • Being involved with Fair Trade. At Burges Salmon a number of food products are Fair Trade certified or include Fair Trade ingredients. All coffee is Fair Trade. The firm supports the Annual South West Fair Trade Business Awards and runs an internal awareness campaign.
  • Charitable fundraising. The firm currently has the charitable theme ‘No child should go hungry’. During the summer of 2019, Burges Salmon supported the Healthy Holiday campaign run by the charity Feeding Bristol.
  • Advocating with other organisations and our people. Burges Salmon are using social media to promote their commitment to Food Sustainability and encourage other organisations to get involved. They have an internal network of environmental champions who are spreading the word in conjunction with their internal communication channels.
  • Getting involved through volunteering. Burges Salmon has a well-established volunteering programme and supports other organisations including community farms, food banks and cafes that serve the homeless and those in need. 
  • Supporting the urban growing of food. Burges Salmon is a corporate supporter of the Avon Wildlife Trust and sends volunteers to their Feed Bristol project.
  • Reducing the use of disposables. Burges Salmon have successfully removed the provision of non-reusable coffee cups during the last year.

 I hope more and more individuals and organisations get involved with Going for Gold and that we can work collaboratively to reduce environmental impacts and support greater food equality across the city.

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So, what change do you want to see happen that will transform food in Bristol by 2030? Do you already have an idea for how Bristol can make this happen? Join the conversation now.

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