Blogs / 08.11.2021

Helping the NHS to hit its net zero targets

The NHS aims to be the world’s first net zero national health service by 2045. Achieving this won’t come from one sweeping transformational move, but from a myriad of tiny shifts that add up to meaningful change. We know this because, at Compass Group, we’re on the same journey - but we’ve set our intention to hit net zero by 2030. We decided to accelerate our timeline so we’re in a position to start helping our healthcare clients to cut their carbon emissions as soon as possible.

Choosing our Steamplicity food system brings you closer to net zero – most importantly, without compromising on taste or nutrition.

Optimising Hospital Food Safety through Innovation in Food Tech

It all starts with our carbon busting menu that makes it easy for your patients or residents to choose more sustainable dishes. In fact, they’ll be cutting carbon without realising it. All they’ll see is a wide selection of 30 delicious meals covering a range of cuisines, including favourite comfort foods and tempting lighter meals for smaller appetites. It’s only when you look behind the scenes that you realise that we’ve trimmed back on carbon-intensive produce and upped ingredients that are more carbon friendly, such as chicken and vegetables. We’re proud to lead the market with a menu that contains 58% of carbon busting choices.

Steamplicity is also designed to cut your food waste levels, streamlining your food provision to minimise your carbon footprint. We’ve built a high degree of flexibility into our system so that you can give patients and residents their first choice, without having to carry a surplus of unwanted meals that would only end up going to waste. Typical health setting food waste levels run at over 10%, but our cook-serve system that preserves choice and flavour has the power to cut that to below 2.5%.

From there, we looked closely at the packaging we use for Steamplicity and introduced the latest recycling technologies to boost our sustainability. Now, all the plastic trays our meals are cooked on enter a circular recycling programme where we bring them back to our recycling centres to avoid creating landfill and to make resources go as far as possible. We clean the trays and recycle all of the virgin plastic back into flakes that are then used to create new plastic products. This will reduce our use of virgin plastic by a colossal 244 tonnes a year – that’s the equivalent weight of almost 20 London buses.

How Steamplicity's Technological Revolution Provides Safer, Healthier Hospital Meals 

Moving to Steamplicity also opens up significant opportunities to cut your energy consumption. In simple terms, switching from a traditional kitchen-based food service to Steamplicity removes the need to run a kitchen, slashing your energy requirements straightaway. You’re turning off all the power-hungry equipment and streamlining to only running microwaves for half an hour or so every mealtime. No more continual cooking or running heated food trolleys. It’s a more sustainable approach and it pays off to the tune of 36% savings on energy bills.

We understand that achieving net zero is a journey made up of a series of carbon-conscious decisions. Our Steamplicity steam-cook system offering an à la carte restaurant-style menu is taking that journey with you, and we will continue to innovate so we can offer more towards your sustainability initiatives.

Why not explore how Steamplicity could increase sustainability in your healthcare setting? Get in touch to arrange a time to talk through the options with one of our experts.