Hallam Cafes are committed to being more sustainable for the future, we have been undertaking the following actions to reduce our impact on the environment. 

Our aim is to develop a sustainable and healthy food culture at the University that excels at sourcing, environmental and society initiatives, and acts as a benchmark and example for great practice not only in the city but nationally. Further information can be found in our Healthy and Sustainable Food Policy August 2024.

Re-usable cups 

For the 5th year, Hallam Cafés has provided 3,000 re-usable cups to its customers. This year, we distributed them free to students at Welcome Week. Customers can save £1 on any hot drink when using their own cup*.

*Please note: disposable cups are not included in this offer. 

Bio-digester

Sheffield Hallam is one of very few UK universities to install a bio-digester in its catering facility to deal with food waste. Ours is in the kitchen next to Hallam Central. This digester consumes up to 100 kg of food waste each day, converting it into grey water. In a normal year, this can save around of 4.9 tonnes of food from general waste disposal.

Local produce and suppliers

We locally source the produce in our catering outlets to cut our carbon footprint. The new Hallam Café brand, with all venues across campus has been designed to be ‘local’ at its core. The 4 key suppliers are all Sheffield food producers: Our coffee is from Roastology, bread from Roses, milk from Our Cow Molly, and cookies from Hallam graduate Max Stofford at DoughBoy.  

In addition, the 4,000 sandwiches are made each week in Hallam kitchens, using fresh bread daily with our own team.

Single-use cutlery 

All our single-use cutlery is made from biodegradable corn starch as part of our commitment to protecting the environment. 

FAQ’s

We are committed to actively revising and improving our service to support the targets detailed in Sheffield Hallam’s Climate Action Strategy, which outlines a whole-of-institution approach to climate action.

Why do you use disposable boxes and cutlery rather than crockery?

Disposable boxes provide customers with the option to take their food away to a location of their choice. Our ‘zero to land fill’ policy ensures that all waste is incinerated in Sheffield’s Energy Recovery Facility, one of the UK’s most advanced energy efficiency plants, supplying heat to the local district heating system, of which Sheffield Hallam is a part.

There is an option to use crockery plates in selected Hallam Kitchen venues.

All cutlery used at Hallam is either washable or biodegradable. Our disposable cutlery is made from corn starch, a by-product of corn, which is a renewable resource. It does not contain toxins and the product creates 68% less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional plastic production. Corn starch is compostable.

Why do you sell plastic bottles of water?

The majority of our soft drink items are sold in cans. It is our policy to source and sell bottled water in recycled packaging. We encourage our customers to recycle, and we provide bins for this in all our outlets. Water in cans will also be re-introduced in November 2023.

As of November 2023, there is an undersupply of Smart Water packaged in recycled plastic bottles and therefore we are temporarily having to purchase some single use plastics.

Why isn’t the menu exclusively vegan?

In order to accommodate our diverse student and staff community, it is important that we provide a varied range of menu options to meet their dietary preferences and requirements. The student survey (completed in February 2023 by over 2,000 students) indicates that 10% of our students follow a vegan diet.

There is a wide range of vegan food available at our Hallam Kitchen and Hallam Café venues, where 4 out of 10 sandwiches are vegan.

We are continually looking to expand our vegan menu with more interesting options. Over the past year we have increased our range which now includes milk alternatives, cakes, cookies, plus our hot dishes always have vegan options.

There is always a strong support of Veganuary each January, with pop-up features and social media highlights.

Why do you use disposable cups for hot drinks?

We are committed to improving sustainability and encourage customers bring their own keep cup. Customers using their own cups receive a 40p discount on all hot drinks. It is our target to get the volume of keep cups used to 40% of total hot drinks sales. As of October 2023, this figure was still under 15%.

When there is clear evidence of this behaviour changing, there could be a review of the use of disposables. It is not likely that this will be the same for the wider branded coffee market.

Keep cups are available to purchase at all Hallam Café outlets. On Atrium Level 5, there is also the option to drink in with a crockery option.

What are you doing about reducing food waste?

The university was one of the first in the UK to introduce a biodigester in 2018. The system can convert up to 100kg of plate food waste into grey water in 24 hours.

Sheffield Hallam now produces almost all its sandwiches and salads on campus, thus enabling good control of production and supply to meet expected demand. 40% of the food served in our Meal Deals in Hallam Cafés is produced in the Sheffield City Region including milk, coffee, bread, and baked goods.

From November 2023, food on its last day of sale will have a yellow sticker and will be sold at very low prices to our student population in a number of venues.