More than 50 local organisations have signed up to Going for Gold: a campaign to make Bristol a Gold Sustainable Food City for its commitment to tackling food waste, promoting food equality and getting people to eat better. 

Bristol currently has Silver status (awarded in 2016) in a national programme called the Sustainable Food Cities Network.

The push to achieve Gold status is being coordinated by Bristol Food Network, Bristol Green Capital and Bristol City Council, partnered by Essential Worker Cooperative, and in line with the One City Plan. No city in the UK has Gold status, so this would also see Bristol set a precedent for the rest of the country. 

In order to become a Gold Sustainable Food City, Bristol must focus on six key areas of sustainability. Here's how you can meet them:

1. Buying better - for example, buying reusable cutlery and crockery, and setting standards for any outside catering you order.
2. Food waste - running a food waste audit, encouraging people to take less at events, and reusing or recycling leftovers.
3. Urban growing - ordering a fruit box for the office, or growing edible plants indoors. 
4. Community action - volunteering your time and skills, or sponsoring a community project.
5. Eating better - cutting down on meat and sugar consumption, and carrying a reusable water bottle.
6. Food equality - choose fairer products that support suppliers and communities, or support local charities distributing food and reducing food poverty.

Bristol must also achieve 'excellence' in two categories: Food Waste, and Catering and Procurement. 

You can take action as an individual or as an organisation to help the city reach its goal - just register on the website to begin. Organisations from across the city are getting involved, and some of them have been named Going for Gold Champions because of their commitment to the six key action areas:

• Bristol Junk Food
• Burges Salmon LLP
• Icon Films
• The Vench - Lockleaze Adventure Playground & Community Centre
• University of Bristol
• UWE Bristol

You may also be interested in Voscur's upcoming training session, Act Now! Becoming Carbon Neutral By 2030, which takes place on 17 December 2019. This half-day session will outline Bristol's climate crisis and give you practical methods of reducing your organisation's carbon footprint and environmental impact. 

Together we can all take small but manageable steps to make a difference to the city's food culture and promote a sustainable way of life.