Eating green
Small changes in the food you eat can help save cash and the planet
Whether it’s what you buy to cook for dinner, or eating out on campus and in the city - there’s plenty of options available to reduce your footprint.
Eating out in Portsmouth
Portsmouth is a great place for dining out - whether it’s grabbing a tasty breakfast, coffee on the go, or a sit-down dinner.
Sustainable food on campus
Our campus cafes make it easy to eat sustainably and our catering team has been working hard to make our University campus one of the best for the environment. In fact we were named as one of the top 10 most vegan-friendly universities in the country.
Around 40% of our menu is plant-based. Our Food on Campus loyalty scheme encourages everyone to try veggie and vegan options — for every 6 plant-based meals purchased, you’ll receive a meal for free. We also use locally-sourced and organic ingredients wherever possible.
Food on campus
Looking for coffee or a bite to eat? We've got you covered right across campus - and with great prices too.
Restaurants and cafes in Portsmouth
Most places to eat in the city offer more sustainable options that you can pick, like vegan and veggie menu choices, locally-sourced food, and sustainable meat and fish.
Don’t forget to ask for a ‘doggy bag’ to take any leftovers home. You’ve already paid for the food, so you might as well get a second meal out of it!
Going grocery shopping
Pick up discounted food
Many other shops and businesses offer discounts for picking up food at the end of the day. Not only are you getting a bargain, you're saving food from being thrown away.
Too Good to Go app
Pick up discounted food from city shops, cafes and restaurants through the Too Good To Go app.
Too Good to Go helps businesses minimise food that might otherwise be wasted because it hasn’t sold in time. The app lets people buy and collect this food, at a great price, so it gets eaten instead of thrown away.
How to grab discounted food
- Download the Too Good to Go on the App Store or Google Play
- Keep an eye out for restaurants and shops listing food that’s up for grabs
- Reserve and pay for your 'magic bag'
- Arrive at the venue at the set time, show your order on your app, and collect your bag
- Enjoy your cheap food, knowing you've saved it from being thrown away!
Make easy swaps
More and more people are reducing the amount of animal products they eat, to benefit the climate, animal welfare and wildlife.
Globally, meat and dairy production accounts for around 15% of climate-changing emissions. So even if you swap out meat, dairy and eggs for just one day a week for a plant-based meal, you’ll be reducing your carbon footprint. Plus, eating more vegetables and fruit is healthier and usually cheaper.
There are lots of meat substitutes available in most supermarkets, and Meat Free Mondays has lots of ideas and inspiration for mealtimes. There’s even a website that helps you gradually reduce the amount of meat you eat.
Choose local shops
Where you shop can benefit the environment and aid animal welfare. See our guide to shopping in Portsmouth for a list of local butchers, bakers and grocers.
Student shopping for local products in Southsea Deli, on Elm Grove, Southsea.
Buy only the food you need
Planning your meals means you only buy the ingredients you need each week. If you know what vegetables you need for each dinner, for example, you're less likely to have unused veg at the end of the week.
There’s lots of free recipes online including those on BBC Good Food and the Student Food Project.
Reducing food waste
Food waste isn’t just bad for the planet, it costs you money!
When food is thrown away it creates harmful greenhouse gases. Managing your food waste reduces the chemicals released by rotting foods, and also means the energy used to produce, package and transport your food doesn’t go to waste.
Freeze to make your food last
When you’re shopping and cooking for one, it’s easy to end up with food like loaves of bread, bags of vegetables and other ingredients that you can’t use before they go off.
However, the freezer is your friend! Popping fresh food into the freezer — or even buying food frozen — makes them last longer, avoids waste, and saves you money.
Inspiration for leftovers
If you do end up with extra food, Love Food Hate Waste has an archive of recipes for leftovers.
Planning your meals and having recipes for leftovers will save you money and reduce the amount of food you throw away.
Recycling your food waste
Even if trying to reduce your food waste you’ll probably end up with vegetable peelings, eggshells, teabags and more left over.
However, even this can be recycled and given a new lease of life — it’s processed by the council and turned into compost and fertiliser.
Much of Southsea now has a food waste collection, picked up weekly by the council. These are the grey caddy bins — a small one for your kitchen countertop, and a bigger one to keep outside.
Just pop suitable food leftovers into compostable bags, and place the bags in the caddy before collection day.
You can find out more about the food waste trial from the council, including where it's taking place and what happens after the waste has been collected.
And don’t forget that while you’re on campus you can use our dark green food waste bins to drop off your banana skins, teabags and lunch leftovers.
