Catching Up with CWR’s Ex Intern Isabel Picazo on her Carbon Canteen Initiative

By Isabel Picazo 21 December, 2023

It’s been 9 months since Carbon Canteen completed its trial period so, we catch up with Picazo to find out how it went, what the challenges have been & what’s next

From 3-4 vegetarian meals a month, ISF's cafeteria now serves 1 veg meal every day; Carbon Canteen initiative was able to cut emissions by more than 60% in the first month
Popular veg options: pumpkin-katsu curry & veg pizza; Carbon Canteen was shared at the CIS Sustainable Food Summit & its framework is being implemented at other schools
Next steps involve tackling food waste; Everyone can 'start small' to reduce their carbon footprint – try having 1-2 veg meals per week & replacing meat with plant-based protein
Author: Isabel Picazo
Isabel Picazo was born and raised in Hong Kong and attends ISF (Independent Schools Foundation), she is currently in G11. Isabel is passionate, self-motivated and a team player with a keen interest in environmental impact and sustainability. She has experience in scientific research and reporting. Isabel completed a month-long internship with China Water Risk over the summer of 2022 and gained meaningful insight which inspired her to further her knowledge in carbon impact. She is currently completing the IB DP and looking to pursue a Bachelor's degree in environmental studies in the future.
Read more from Isabel Picazo →

During Isabel Picazo’s internship at CWR in the summer of 2022, she became very aware about the climate impacts of our food. With this interest, she discovered that her school cafeteria had significantly higher carbon emissions compared to other schools in Hong Kong. Shocked by this, Isabel set up the Carbon Canteen at Independent Schools Foundation (ISF). It’s now been nine months since the Carbon Canteen completed its trial period so, we sat down with Isabel to find out how it went, what the successes and challenges have been & what’s next. You can read more about her initial journey here. 

CWR: Isabel, thank you for chatting with us. It’s been almost 9 months since the 3-month trial period of the Carbon Canteen initiative concluded at your school. Can you share what happened during that time? What are some of your successes and challenges? 

Isabel Picazo (IP): Certainly! Carbon Canteen has come very far, and I’d be happy to share our progress and experiences! Right after we collaborated with the heads of food production at school as well as regional operational representatives from the catering company, at least 1 vegetarian meal has been added to the menu every day. This is a far cry from the past when out of the 60 meals served in a month (3 meal options offered daily), only 3-4 were vegetarian. The change was implemented this January and has remained ever since! In the first month that vegetarian meals were offered, our school’s cafeteria emissions decreased by more than 60%, going down from 6,666,916g CO2e to 2,561,887g CO2e.

From 3-4 vegetarian meals a month, there’s now 1 veg meal served every day…

…our cafeteria emissions went down by more than 60% in the first month

As for the response to Carbon Canteen, the team and I had not expected such a positive reaction from both students and teachers. Students who were previously unaware of the vegetarian meals and changes to the menu began coming up to us with suggestions and recommendations for potential meal options to add to the menu. I then relayed these responses with the food management team at Independent Schools Foundation (ISF) and the catering company, who have tried to implement them on our menu.

As for the teachers, I know that the meals are popular amongst them as several have told me that they used to buy lunch outside of school and now buy from our cafeteria. Also, in class, teachers who have been teaching about current environmental problems or anything related have promoted Carbon Canteen.

We definitely ran into some challenges too, especially when it came to the promotion side of the vegetarian meals.

Carbon Canteen received such a positive reaction…

…students are now coming up to us with menu recommendations & teachers enjoy buying school lunches

At first, we struggled to find ways to advertise the meals to the student body, unsure of how they would react to such a change. However, we eventually overcame this bump and made many small steps toward making the benefits of eating vegetarian meals more well-known. We created posters that were put up around the campus detailing the carbon emissions one could save by choosing the vegetarian option as well as how it improves mental and physical health. We sent out school-wide emails about the meal changes and carbon emission reductions and even joined our school’s broadcast network to further promote.

While I definitely think that we could have done more to advertise the new meals e.g. dressing up in green during lunch periods to promote vegetarianism in a fun and creative way, the initial steps we took helped us gain traction. That being said, I still believe in the future we will definitely be dressing up as broccoli to further encourage students.

CWR: Congratulations on all the success! What does your cafeteria look like now that it’s in full swing? 

IP: The cafeteria currently displays all the daily meals available to students including all the vegetarian options, which is extremely encouraging to see. Some of the more popular vegetarian options include vegetarian Japanese curry with pumpkin-katsu as well as vegetarian pizza, lasagna and pasta.

Popular veg options: Japanese pumpkin-katsu curry, veg pizza/lasagna etc…

…plus now there’s smaller veg side dishes, catering to students’ preferences & budget

In addition to vegetarian meals, there are also now more vegetarian smaller dish options. For example, prior to our involvement, our canteen offered a salad but they only had 1 size option available. Students who wanted only a few greens with their meals avoided ordering the salad because the price was not worth how much they could actually eat. We suggested that a small size option to be added to the menu so students could eat a smaller portion without paying the amount of a large portion. This addition has since been implemented and it has been motivating to see many students and teachers utilizing this option at lunch. All of these changes, regardless large or small, are thanks to keeping up our collaborative efforts throughout our journey.

Nonetheless improvements can always be made. We have been working on making the nutritional contents of the meals more fulfilling and balanced by adding more variety of protein to the meals.

CWR: Carbon Canteen has clearly grown at your school. Have you been able to gain traction at other schools across Hong Kong? 

IP: We have been speaking with interested environmental leaders from other schools and were able to physically meet them at the Chinese International School (CIS) Sustainable Food Summit in April this year.

It was extremely encouraging for us to be invited not only to attend but also host a workshop. This was our first experience sharing the Carbon Canteen project with anyone outside the ISF community. Although it was initially daunting, the team remained motivated even though this Summit was right after mock exams. We didn’t lose steam and tirelessly prepared and practiced all the materials. The Summit presentation was extremely successful and many of the audience members found it informative, insightful and persuading. It was especially inspiring to see the students’ reactions to our project and its impact.

We hosted a workshop at the CIS Sustainable Food Summit…

…& engaged with other school environmental leaders like DC Green Cobras & CIS’s DITO

It was also at the Summit where we had the opportunity to physically meet some of the environmental leaders from other schools who were interested in Carbon Canteen. These included CIS’s Drop In The Ocean (DITO) team members, as well as Discovery College (DC) Green Cobras leaders. We are currently collaborating with DC to help them implement the Carbon Canteen framework in their school canteen.

CWR: Another big carbon emitter at school cafeterias is food waste. Could this be the next step for Carbon Canteen? Do you have any other plans going forward? 

IP: We understand that food waste is a large contributor to carbon emissions. ISF has been evolving its sustainability department and resources since 2014, and they have actually designed a system for food waste management.

Leftover food is composted using the ‘Rocket’ & used in the school’s rooftop garden…

…this could be a great opportunity for students to create their own veg meals from the garden

The school has a machine called a ‘Rocket’, which essentially reduces and recycles waste (food waste) on campus. Leftover food from daily lunches is composted through the machine and transformed into nutrients for soil which then is utilized in the school gardens. We have an organic rooftop garden where students can get hands-on experience with nature and the wonders of agriculture and plant-growing. However, that is not to say that Carbon Canteen wouldn’t contribute to the food waste solutions at school.

Carbon Canteen strongly believes in climate education from a young age so that we can instill the values of nature and sensitivity towards sustainability early on. This could be a great opportunity to launch activities where more students get to attempt to create their own vegetarian meals with elements from the rooftop garden.

CWR: What is a piece of advice you would like to give to students, parents and teachers that are trying to reduce their food carbon footprint? 

IP: Start small! One key point we established early on in our journey was that we are in no way telling people to go vegetarian overnight, nor are we telling people to completely convert to vegetarianism. Going vegetarian without proper education and awareness can sometimes be harmful especially if you don’t know the nutritional content of certain foods as you could end up depriving yourself of certain nutrients. We also understand that while vegetarian dine-out options are prevalent in other parts of the world like Europe and North America, in Asia they tend to be limited and sparsely available.

You can start small!

1) adopt 1-2 vegetarian meals a week

2) supplement meat with plant-based proteins

Thus, we recommend that students, parents and teachers as well as anyone interested in adopting a more carbon-efficient and sustainable lifestyle to start implementing 1 or 2 vegetarian meals a week. We also advise people to supplement some of the meat within their meals with alternative/plant-based proteins. For example, at home if we have beef bolognese, I like to use less beef and add lentils into the mix instead. It tastes really good. The beef is still present, so it doesn’t taste completely different plus the lentils add extra healthy protein as well as make the meal less carbon-intensive.

On our Instagram (handle: carboncanteen), we try to create fun posts that showcase alternative proteins that one could use to supplement meat with! We encourage anyone interested in decreasing their carbon footprint to check it out as we also list our project updates and experiences!

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