The Forest Showcase Food Festival is determined to make its Food Festival as environmentally responsible as possible.

We want to reduce all aspects of our events’ impact on the environment and we require traders to help us. Preference will always be given to traders who use organic, seasonal and locally-sourced ingredients and we will favour traders who are committed to sustainable practices.

Our aim is to introduce a compulsory Environmental and Sustainability Policy in 2022. In the meantime, we ask traders to work with us towards our aims and to endeavour to source alternative products where necessary.

This should include:

  • All food containers, packaging, plates, cutlery and ancillary items, must be fully compostable.
  • Drinks containers should be recyclable; recyclable plastic is preferable to biodegradable plastic. If biodegradable drink containers are used, this should be clearly indicated.
  • Use paper straws or, preferably, no straws.
  • Only sell cans or glass bottles and, if practical and appropriate, encourage consumers to use
  • their own re-usable bottles.
  • Eliminate the use of plastic bags. Instead, offer paper bags or consider reusable alternatives such as hessian or canvas, that you can offer for sale as a sustainable option.
  • Only use paper condiment sachets or offer products from re-usable and refillable containers, not plastic.

Food Sustainability

Wherever possible, tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar and bananas used in the preparation of products sold at our events should be Fairtrade and fruit and vegetables should be local, seasonal and organic.

We would prefer all meat and dairy to be British sourced, and as local as possible. Ideally, products should be Organically grown/farmed and either Free Range or RSPCA Freedom Food.

We expect you to only use fish from sustainable stocks as indicated in the Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide. Fish used must NOT be on the MCS ‘Fish to Avoid’ list.

Environmental Responsibilities

We will continue to review our activities to identify, evaluate and understand all the direct and indirect environmental consequences of our events. 

Our ongoing objectives include:

  • Phasing out the use of unnecessary single-use plastics, and to encourage all our partners to go plastic-free, and transition from SUPs to sustainable alternatives.
  • Reducing energy consumption by reducing generator run times and more accurately matching demand and supply; and investigating environmentally-sound fuel alternatives.
  • Encouraging our suppliers to support sustainable practices
  • Raising awareness of environmentally responsible practices
  • Preventing pollution and particularly ensure litter arising from events is collected and does not contaminate the local environment
  • Finding ways of treating all waste generated in the most environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.