Cafes, restaurants and caterers tucked into expert advice and experience to help them prepare for the trend towards diets with less meat and dairy, at our sustainable food event in September, co-hosted with Eco-innovation Cumbria.

A wide range of food businesses gathered at the National Trust’s Sticklebarn Tavern in Langdale on Monday 23 September to hear how they could cater for changing food trends and make their businesses more sustainable in other ways, too – from reducing food waste to using renewable energy.

We heard from carbon expert Mike Berners-Lee from Small World Consulting about the need to become more sustainable, in the face of the growing climate crisis, and why the food sector has such a big part to play.

We also heard from the team at Chesters restaurant about their experience of shifting to a vegetarian menu.

Gareth Fuke from the National Trust explained how the Trust’s Sticklebarn pub worked with Mike Berners-Lee to show the carbon footprint of their menu items, and the effect it has had.

Glyn Griffiths from Eco-innovation Cumbria outlined how this ERDF-funded programme is helping Cumbrian businesses to improve their sustainability – including this event. The event was also supported by South Lakeland District Council, as part of their strategy to cut carbon emissions in the district.