ChangeKitchen CIC - climate-friendly baked in!
We are proudly celebrating world EARTHDAY.ORG on Tuesday 22nd April 2025.
WHY?
Because ChangeKitchenCIC has ‘climate-friendly’ baked into our social enterprise DNA.
SO LET’S UNPACK THAT A BIT MORE…
This years #EarthDay2025 theme is based around renewable energy, something we’re passionate about!
When we expanded our kitchen in 2022/23, we instinctively incorporated the most energy efficient equipment we could afford, and designed the kitchen in the most energy efficient way we could. That also meant installing an air heat pump for our hot water and heating in the #KindnessCafe, and more recently solar panels were added to our building that will mean that during our most busy times in summer, we will be getting up to 100% of our electricity from the sun.
Did you know…
ChangeKitchen CIC was awarded Green Restaurant of the Year by Birmingham City Council the last time it was given in 2012. It demonstrated then, as now, that we are totally committed to both social and environmental impact across our social enterprise. We are, and have always been, fully vegetarian and deliver a lot of vegan food as one way of cutting our carbon footprint.
We believe we are the only fully climate-friendly caterer in the Midlands, certainly the only one that is also a social enterprise (giving back to the community) and have very nearly 15 years positive track record.
Embedded environmental efficacy…
We recycle as much waste as we can.
We compost any peelings and and food waste using Bokashi composting in partnership with Compost Connection CIC.
We save 50-100 tonnes of surplus food from landfill per year.
We use surplus food to cook nutritious meals for people in need every week.
We have provided c.90,000 community meals since March 2020 and still supplying 200-400 meals per week.
We host ‘slow cooking’ classes to reduce fossil fuel consumption.
We avoid single use plastic wherever possible.
We use proper crockery and cutlery for our catered events whenever possible.
Exciting news!
ChangeKitchen CIC has now started the journey to becoming a B Lab UK #BCorp in order to demonstrate better what we do already and as a way to see where we can improve.
So, this Earth Day, here are top 3 Climate Hero tips…
Understand the difference between ‘Use by’ and ‘Best before’ dates on your food items to reduce food waste.
Be inspired by vegetarian and vegan recipes to reduce your meat and dairy consumption and reduce your carbon footprint.
Go shopping with your own bags and buy fruit and vegetables loose - perhaps try ‘buying local’ from a farmers market to reduce road miles and pollution too!
We can all take small actions that can make big impacts!
Birgit Kehrer, Tommy and our #ClimateHero team - striving to be better everyday #OurPowerOurPlanet
#cookingupchange #catererswhocare #socent #LoveYourPlanet #DoMoreGood