The campaign is working with both staff and students to help increase recycling awareness by bringing a fun yet serious message to Go Green Week.

The Can Film Festival was launched at London South Bank University and has subsequently been held across the country at other Degrees Cooler participating universities.

Rick Hindley of Every Can Counts said: “Of the eight billion drink cans sold in the UK each year, around half still end up in landfill. We can still dramatically improve on these figures if we focus on recycling outside of the home. Degrees Cooler offers us a fantastic opportunity to expand Every Can Counts and engage with a very important audience.

Mervyn Jones, manufacturing programme manager at WRAP, added: “Today’s students are very much the leaders of tomorrow. Awareness of importance of recycling amongst this demographic is gradually increasing and programmes like Degrees Cooler and Every Can Counts help to turn this awareness into action.”

You can view the video here.

The City Mill is situated in the heart of Winchester. 2004 saw the completion of major restoration to bring the mill back into working order as a a corn mill powered by the River Itchen. They now produce and sell their own wholemeal flour.

Hilary got the opportunity to walk around the mill and see the millers in action producing the flour, he then joined the local Brownie pack in the mills demonstration kitchen to make and bake bread rolls using the freshly produced flour. Eat Into Greener Living has provided the mill with enough money to purchase more baking equipment and an upgrade to a better bread oven to make sure even more fresh bread can be produced.

Visitors to the property will now be able to take part in more baking lessons over the next year and learn all about the on site flour production and other local sustainable food produce available in the area. Events such as bread and honey days and cake baking will be held regulalry and visitors will be given their own recipe cards to take home to carry on baking!

For more information about Winchester city Mill click here.

Photo courtesy of Professional-Images.com  

• Peter Ainsworth MP for East Surrey and Former Shadow Environment Minister
• Trewin Restorick, Chief Executive, Global Action Plan
• The Worshipful The Mayor of Reigate and Banstead Cllr. Richard Mantle

There will be fun, games and competitions for the whole family on Friday 12 February and Saturday 13 February between 10am and 4pm.

Please R.S.V.P. to tessa@tapintosavings.org.

We look forward to welcoming you.  For more information visit www.tapintosavings.org.

Colmans of South Shields has set a benchmark for sustainability in the fish and chip shop sector as the first winner of the Good Catch[1] Award for Sustainability. The new award – created for this year’s Fish and Chip shop of the Year competition run by Seafish [2] – aims to further advance  sustainable sourcing in the sector by increasing awareness of responsibly-sourced seafood and the practical support available to fish and chip shops.

 Colmans of South Shields are already well-known for their long-standing passion for sustainability, and the Good Catch Award is national recognition of their hard work and foresight in putting sustainability on the menu.  Colmans already offer their customers Marine Stewardship Council-certified sustainable pollock and they particularly impressed the judges with their knowledge of the issues around sustainable sourcing. They drew further praise for their detailed menus and specials board where customers can see which boat caught the shops’ local options.

 Colmans‘ regular, South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary, David Miliband was one of the first to congratulate Colmans on their success: “I am delighted that Colmans have won the first Good Catch Award for sustainability -  Richard, Frances and their team are dedicated to ensuring that all the fish and seafood they use is sourced from sustainable and well-managed fisheries,” said Miliband.

 “Colmans’ guests have ranged from former Prime Minister Tony Blair to Hollywood actor Sir Patrick Stewart and Lord Peter Mandelson – all have commented on how good the food is and how they wish they lived closer so they too could be regulars at Colmans.”

 ”Colmans has always embraced sustainability and our whole team are delighted that the Good Catch Award recognises our work at the forefront of this issue,” said Richard Ord, owner of Colmans. “Sourcing seafood with integrity is the future for Britain’s fish and chip shops.”

 As part of the award, Colmans will be invited to hold a demonstration at Hotelympia, an industry showcase event, where they will join chefs from Fifteen in showing how sustainable seafood can benefit business. They will also receive consultations with members of the Good Catch group on how to further embed sustainability into their business plans, marketing materials, and a supply of MSC- certified fish to sell in the restaurant. 

 Runners up Alfie Grimshaw, from Kenilworth and Habour Lights of Falmouth also impressed the judges with their strong stance on sustainable sourcing and innovative communications engaging customers; they will each receive a free Marine Stewardship Council online assessment for certification and consultations through the year with the Good Catch group.

 End

Notes to Editors

For further information, please contact Julia Roberson, at SeaWeb on 0207 922 7781 or email jroberson@seaweb.org

[1] Seafish, the authority on seafood, was founded in 1981 by an act of parliament and supports the seafood industry for a sustainable, profitable future. Seafish services range from research and development, economic consulting, market research and training and accreditation through to account management and legislative advice for the seafood industry. www.seafish.org

[2] Good Catch, an initiative of the Marine Conservation Society, the Marine Stewardship Council, SeaWeb’s Seafood Choices and Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, is a collaborative project that helps the foodservice sector navigate seafood sustainability.  It directs foodservice professionals to a range of user-friendly materials and activities on sustainable seafood, including The Good Catch Manual: a rough guide to seafood sustainability. The Manual includes MCS seafood ratings, information on Marine Stewardship Council-certified fisheries, top tips to ask suppliers, all in an easy-to-use format. Together the Good Catch workshops, fieldtrips, publications and online tools create a collection of clear, consistent information and practical support. 

For more information, visit www.goodcatch.org.uk.

The Marine Stewardship Council is working with Good Catch on sustainability issues and the potential for certification with the Fish and Chip shop sector as part of its ’MSC on the Menu’ project. This has work has been funded by Defra’s Greener Living Fund (GLF). For more information on the GLF, please visit: www.greenerlivingfund.org.uk

The MSC is working with The Good Catch Initiative on sustainability issues and the potential for MSC certification with the Fish and Chip shop sector as part of its ‘MSC on the Menu’ project.

Three fish and chip shops have reached the finals for the Good Catch Sustainability Award as part of this year’s Fish and Chip Shop of the Year Competition, run by Seafish [1]. With nearly 276 million meals sold each year from over 10,500 shops across the UK, fish and chips are a key part of our nation’s seafood culture. Alfie Grimshaw from Kenilworth, Colman’s of South Shields and Falmouth’s Harbour Lights, all impressed the judges with their work towards sustainable sourcing and knowledge of the issues around sustainable seafood.

A new award

The Good Catch Award, created for this year’s competition, recognises fish and chip shops that have shown initiative in improving the environmentally responsible practices of their business and the seafood that they buy, serve and promote. This new award aims to encourage further progress across the fish and chip sector by increasing awareness of sustainably sourced seafood and the practical support available to businesses.

Emily Howgate of Seafood Choices and Good Catch coordinator, said: “Ten, or even five years ago, sustainable sourcing would not have been on the agenda for most fish and chip shops. Now, with increasing consumer awareness of ethical and environmental issues, fish and chip shops are really starting to put sustainability on the menu – where it belongs. The Good Catch Award will help to create a race to the top in sustainable fish and chips and the finalists we’ve announced today are the front-runners.”  

The winner

The winner of the Good Catch Award will be announced on the 21st January at the Fish and Chip Shop of the Year awards ceremony in London hosted by celebrity chef Aldo Zilli.

Further information

For more information contact media@msc.org.

Key facts about MSC

[1] Seafish was founded in 1981 by an act of parliament and supports the seafood industry for a sustainable, profitable future. Seafish services range from research and development, economic consulting, market research and training and accreditation through to account management and legislative advice for the seafood industry. www.seafish.org

Good Catch, an initiative of the Marine Conservation Society, the Marine Stewardship Council, SeaWeb’s Seafood Choices, and Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, is a collaborative project that helps the foodservice sector navigate seafood sustainability.  It directs foodservice professionals to a range of user-friendly materials and activities on sustainable seafood, including The Good Catch Manual: a rough guide to seafood sustainability. The Manual includes MCS seafood ratings, information on Marine Stewardship Council-certified fisheries, top tips to ask suppliers, all in an easy-to-use format. Together the Good Catch workshops, fieldtrips, publications and online tools create a collection of clear, consistent information and practical support. 

For more information, visit www.goodcatch.org.uk 

The MSC is working with Good Catch on sustainability issues and the potential for certification with the Fish and Chip shop sector as part of its ‘MSC on the Menu’ project. This work has been funded by Defra’s Greener Living Fund (GLF). For more information on the GLF, please visit: www.greenerlivingfund.org.uk

Many in the co-operative movement draw attention to the climate threat through demonstration or petition, which are valuable actions. Greener Together – the co-operative way builds on to those by supporting individuals to change their behaviour and reduce their impact on the environment.

The Project enables member organisations of Co-operatives^UK, the Confederation of Co-operative Housing (CCH) and the Plunkett Foundation to help their members and customers live in a more sustainable way.

The core aim of Greener Together is to advise, support and provide the means to share lifestyle changes that reduce members’ and customers’ environmental impact in three key areas: energy, waste and personal transport.

Spread over these 50 co-operatives and community owned enterprises, in England, 3,600 people will be supported to take action.

Join with other member organisations and work together to pioneer change. We need 50 committed organisations to sign up.

 Working Together we can make a real difference

For more information please visit: www.greenertogether.coop

To find out more information abotu EcoTeams or to set up your very own EcoTeam please visit the EcoTeams website here.

Student Switch Off encourages students to be more aware of their environment and to find ways of reducing their energy use. Reduction in electricy usage will be measured in each building and the winning halls will receive a selection of goodies!

Check out the videos from the event, 3 students pledge what they will aim to do to reduce their energy use to help their halls win the competition and Tom Yearly, Energy Officer at the University of Reading talks about what else the University is doing in the Degrees Cooler programme.