Local Food Economy

A low-carbon Christmas at The Canteen 

By Anna Blightman

Hear from The Assemblies’ Anna Blightman about ways The Canteen is working to cut carbon this Christmas.

I’m Anna Blightman, part of The Assemblies team – the group behind The Canteen, No.1 Harbourside, and Old Market Assembly. This year, at The Canteen, our venue on Stokes Croft, we’re approaching Christmas focusing on what really matters: reducing our impact on the planet, while still enjoying the festive season. 

Christmas is often a time of excess, and one of the areas where we see this most is in food waste. In the UK, it is estimated that we throw away an incredible 230,000 tonnes of food over the holiday season alone. To put that into perspective, the average person consumes around 35 tonnes of food in their lifetime. So, in just one month, we’re wasting enough food to feed over 6,500 people for their entire lives. It’s a staggering thought. 

At The Assemblies, we’ve been working on ways to reduce waste and lower our carbon footprint year-round. This Christmas, we’ve taken things a step further by creating a festive menu that is less carbon-intensive than your traditional turkey dinner. It’s our way of addressing the environmental impact of the holiday season, while still offering something special to enjoy. 

Our involvement with the Net Zero Hospitality Initiative has helped guide us on this path. The hospitality industry is responsible for up to 15% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and with the UK Government aiming for Net Zero by 2050, it’s clear that we all need to do our part. By partnering with Net Zero Now, we’ve been able to measure and reduce our emissions, making a real difference in how we operate. 

Working with Bristol company Future Leap, we carbon-rated our Christmas menu and a traditional three-course Christmas menu with roast turkey and all the trimmings. Their team took all our data, which consisted of recipes for each dish on our menu, and then they chose a comparative traditional Christmas menu from the good ol’ BBC Good Food website. After crunching the numbers with data from Big Climate Database, the results came in loud and clear… The Canteen Christmas menu rocks in at a whopping 53% less carbon-intensive than your traditional turkey! 

The idea behind our Low-Carbon Christmas isn’t about being perfect – it’s about taking small, meaningful steps to be more mindful of our choices. The dishes we’ve created use seasonal, plant-based ingredients that are lower in carbon, without compromising on flavour. It’s about enjoying food that’s both delicious and responsible, knowing that we’re reducing our impact on the environment, even in small ways. 

For us, it’s not about telling people how they should celebrate or what they should eat. It’s about offering an alternative – a way to celebrate that aligns with our values and supports a more sustainable future. We hope that by making thoughtful choices in what we serve, we can inspire others to think about their own impact, without feeling like they have to give up the things they enjoy. 

This Christmas, we’re just trying to make a difference where we can, and we hope that in doing so, we can encourage others to do the same. If you’re curious, come by The Canteen and see what we’ve been working on. It might not look like a traditional Christmas, but that’s the point – sometimes the best changes are the ones that help us see things in a new light. 

Find the Christmas menu on The Canteen’s website.

For more news, events and jobs in good food in Bristol, sign up for the Bristol Good Food Update at bristolgoodfood.org/newsletter, out at the beginning of every month.

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