AUT’s vision for sustainable food involves providing food that is healthy, affordable, low carbon, eliminates waste streams, and enhances water, soil and biodiversity.
Sustainable food covers multiple aspects and this is reflected in our range of targets, which include:
What we're doing to meet targets:
These are some of the ways we're implementing sustainable food plans at AUT.
Organic waste collections are used at the main catering kitchen and cafes and all seven teaching kitchens in the School of Hospitality and Tourism. These divert waste from landfill and create a valuable resource – compost. There are also eight worm farms beside the School of Hospitality and Tourism's rooftop garden, processing food waste from the kitchens which is then used on the garden. These are also used as an educational resource for the school's students.
Mara kai (food gardens) were established by students at the South Campus in 2020 and the vegetables harvested for meals.
You can contribute to better sustainable food practices by:
Learn about all of our sustainability targets, and what we're doing to achieve them, in the AUT Sustainability Roadmap.