I am planning a lunch for our office in anticipation of Biodiversity Day. Please offer suggestions on what we can do, what to order and who to order from keeping the theme in mind.
Will offer more details if needed.
Thanks!
I had no clue what this was, but on googling, wiki says:
Now I will search “biodiversity”.
First, you’ll want to stress sustainability by providing or having everyone bring their own sustainable plates, cutlery, and beverage containers. I am off work today, but my agency does have a sustainability web page that offers information on green stuff. http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/swfa/nav/sust.html
If I were at work, I would be able to tap members of the green team to ask for better resources, but then I wouldn’t be posting!
Thanks!
We do have similar information locally, and they did list a great catering company that sources local food and seems to really focus on sustainability, but I can’t get ahold of them yet.
No beans! 
Maybe you could suggest people bring foods from our local farmer’s market, or buy the food from there yourself if the local catering company doesn’t come through.
If weather allows, can you have the lunch outside? I like the idea of people bringing their own plates and such, but alternatively I suppose you could use recycled paper plates and recycle them again. Definitely NO water bottles!
Hand out invitations on that neat-o paper that has flower seeds embedded in it?
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As mentioned, request people to bring their own reusable dishware or supply some and wash them afterward. How many people are going to the lunch? Some catering or party rental businesses may rent out large sets of dishware for this very purpose. If you must have disposable dishware and/or cups, opt for compostable or, at the very least, recyclable and recycled materials made with a high percentage of post-consumer ingredients (they will be labeled as such, e.g. 100% recycled, 80% post-consumer).
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Set up a compost bin at the site and use it for all food scraps. Explain this beforehand to everyone in attendance, since not everyone will be familiar with composting.
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Also mentioned, source your food as locally as possible (or find/demand caterers that do). Are there co-ops in your area? Not only will they often have fresh local selections, they may even do some catering on the side if they have a deli. Local produce travels fewer miles and fresh-from-the-farm stuff goes through less processing.
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Get organic food – they tend to result in less soil degradation and pesticide/fertilizer runoff. This also rules out genetically-modified foods, whose health and ecosystem system effects are not completely understood yet.
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If possible, make the meal all-vegetarian or vegan. In America, eating plants directly instead of eating the animals that eat the plants is much more energy-efficient. (I say “in America” because not all countries use the intensive factory farming practices that we do), not only in terms of the fossil fuels required for transportation of livestock feed and the livestock themselves, but also in terms of the sheer energy lost as heat through the animals’ metabolism. The feedlots also cause large amounts of environmental damage through antibiotic seepage, improper waste management (manure contributes to water pollution, methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, other gasses are bad for nearby air quality), the spread of diseases (bad for the cows and bad for the people who eat them), and damage to worker health (including feedlot workers who are constantly exposed to large amounts of animal waste products, the processing plant workers who must slaughter and process animals at dangerously high rates, and agricultural workers who apply pesticide, improperly protected, to the crop that feeds the animals). And insofar as food animals are considered a part of the environment, they suffer incredible amounts of abuse at these operations – PETA will gladly provide some graphic examples.
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If a vegetarian lunch isn’t a practical option, source your meat from sustainable farmers. Unfortunately, the labeling laws for grassfed and free-range are worthless and you basically have to research each individual producer to discover their practices (if even possible). Avoid large industry giants like Tyson. Your best bet might be to ask around at a local co-op or farmer’s market; small local farmers often (but not necessarily) use more environmentally-friendly practices.
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Buy food in bulk and carry it in reusable containers that you bring. This cuts down on packaging and transportation waste. Likewise, bring reusable grocery bags to carry the stuff back with. If you don’t have enough of either, don’t go out and buy it just for the purpose unless similar luncheons will occur on an ongoing basis; just rent them or ask employees to bring some from home to share.
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If possible, site the lunch at a location accessible via bicycle and/or public transportation. Set up and encourage carpooling.
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Do not send out paper invitations if possible. Even fancy seed paper is transportation-intensive, and they often come in plastic bags that require energy to produce, can be difficult or impossible to recycle depending on location, and improperly disposed of can present a hazard to marine life.
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If your budget allows, consider renting solar cookers to cook with, photovoltaic panels to power the event, or purchasing carbon offsets and/or reusable energy credits.
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Consider staying away from or reducing the use of foods that generally come from unsustainable monocrop plantations – soy, corn, palm oil, to name a few. Opt for sustainable coffee grown in the shade if coffee must be served. If tea is to be served, stay away from individual teabags and brew the tea in bulk.
And perhaps most importantly, educate your attendees about all the steps you’re going to take and encourage them (perhaps with company-wide incentives) to do the same at home. One luncheon won’t make a difference, but if you can convince even a tiny portion of your visitors to do the same in their private lives, you’ve turned a goofy feel-good company promo into what may eventually become genuine lifestyle changes for the better.
Much of this will be difficult because our current society and market system isn’t set up to encourage these practices, unfortunately, but the good news is that it’s definitely a growing trend and much of the information you may need to look up will be available online, for free.