Responsibility
Responsibility guides what we do now and in the future.
Environmental responsibility
Campus Restaurants operates restaurants and cafés on the Lappeenranta campus. As an environmentally responsible company, we strive to operate in the best possible way for the environment. Key issues include product process design, reducing food waste, switching to biodegradable packaging materials, traceability of raw materials, reducing emissions, and waste recycling.
We underline ethical sourcing and accept only food suppliers who are committed to corporate responsibility, environmental sustainability and product safety.
The meat used in campus restaurants is mainly domestic. To serve the increased number of vegetarians, we are putting effort into the quality of vegetarian food. Providing more vegetarian food instead of meat reduces environmental impact and increases the environmental responsibility of procurement.
Food waste reducing
We at Campus Restaurants also want to act responsibly with regard to food waste. Reducing waste is important to us and we have a goal to reduce food waste in all areas. We also wanted to involve our customers in reducing food waste. In cooperation with Biovaaka Oy, we have introduced new solutions such as an automated plate loss tracking system that gives the diner feedback on discarded food. With the help of the biobalance service, we have also made food waste visible to our customers and have thereby achieved significant results in food waste reduction.
Our kitchen staff also focuses on food waste reduction as part of the daily work. We introduced the Biovaaka Pro service for monitoring total kitchen waste. With the help of the service, we can follow the occurrence of food loss in the entire restaurant at different stages. The information obtained and comprehensive reports help our menu planning and the development of operations, reducing food waste. Leftover food is sold to take home at reduced prices and donated to food aid.
Kampusravintolat Oy also participates in climate talks with the City of Lappeenranta. When we join as a Greenreality partner, we commit to three goals that promote the company’s environmental friendliness. The first goal is to further reduce plate loss by cooperating with students and informing about the loss even before the line. Another goal is to direct customers to vegetarian food by diversifying and developing vegetarian food options. The third goal in cooperation with customer companies is to steer conference catering in a more environmentally friendly direction.
The recycling and waste streams from Campus Restaurants are reported annually as part of the university’s sustainability reporting.