Practical Actions
Investing in Waste Sorting
The operations of Juvenes Restaurants, especially student and personnel restaurants, are the biggest factor in Juvenes Corporation’s environmental effects. One of Juvenes’ environmental goals is to reduce the amount of waste.
Improving waste sorting in our restaurants is one of the environmental goals that we have met best. Depending on the restaurant, we separate organic waste, paper, office paper, cardboard, waste-to-energy waste, scrap metal, and glass, and carefully dispose of plastic and toxic waste. The oil from our deep fryers is reused as organic fuel.
To minimize the amount of waste in our cooking processes, we are constantly monitoring the amount of organic waste produced and phasing our cooking processes accordingly.
Juvenes Catering uses reusable plastic boxes for catering outside our facilities to reduce the amount of packaging waste. When serving food, Juvenes Catering uses mainly china, glass and metalware, as well as washable tablecloths and napkins. Disposable plates and cups used at certain events are mainly biodegradable. Sorting of waste is taken into consideration even in venues not operated by Juvenes.
In our offices, we avoid using paper for example by scanning documents instead of copying them.
Environmentally Friendly Technology
When acquiring new kitchen appliances, we choose ecological appliances that save water, energy, and detergent. All dishwasher detergents used in Juvenes restaurants are also environmentally friendly. We compare all measurements and controls to those of previous years and former procedures, and do regular maintenance to keep our appliances in good condition.
Responsible Choices on Your Plate
Juvenes is a responsible buyer. Whenever possible, considering cost-effectiveness and production procedures, Juvenes chooses organic and local products. For example, our potatoes are grown in Pälkäne just 40 km away, and the organic peas used in our pea soup come from Huittinen. However, the cost and availability issues of organic and local foods often limit the choice, and present a challenge to our product development team.
Juvenes Restaurants only use responsible fish products, for example fish that is MSC certified and on the green list on the WWF fish guide. We also offer a nutritionally balanced vegetarian choice in all our restaurants every day.
Juvenes promotes the use of Fair Trade products. Products are available in all Juvenes restaurants and cafeterias. Starting in 2011, all Juvenes cafeterias and Kioski Centre have sold Fair Trade coffee only. On university campuses and Tampere city personnel restaurants Fair Trade coffee is served when catering meetings and events. We also carry Fair Trade tea, chocolate, and bananas.
The Customer's Role
The customer has an important role in sorting the waste. All our lunch buffets have environmental bulletins informing the customer about waste sorting and reducing the amount of organic waste. The instructions are clearly presented, and the waste bins are consistently placed in all our restaurants. Our goal is to increase environmental awareness to create more environmentally friendly actions.
Regular Follow-Ups and Reports
Waste management follow-ups are conducted twice yearly. The owner of the property plays an important role in successful waste management as well. To improve our waste management, we have increased cooperation with property owners.
We inform our customers about environmental issues online, in Juvenes News news, through different campaigns and theme days, and bulletin boards in our restaurants. In addition, each restaurant provides information about the amount of waste produced and the actions taken to protect the environment.
Juvenes Print - Suomen Yliopistopaino Oy
Juvenes Print follows Juvenes Corporation’s environmental programme, audited in 2008, when applicable. Publishing operations have major environmental effects due to large consumption paper as well as emissions and waste produced by printing technology.
Juvenes Print has received the Nordic Swan ecolabel in 2008 and the ISO 9001 quality certificate in 2009. These rewards indicate that the company is committed to constant development of its operations to reduce the effects on environment.
Juvenes Print’s waste management system separates dry waste and paper. Excess paper and paper wrapping is taken to the property’s waste sorting unit and recycled appropriately. Both the offset printing machine and the glue machine have an air inlet system installed to reduce emission. All colour and drum units are recycled. All parts of the copying and printing machines are recyclable, and our supplier has received an international award for their actions for the environment.
We use only environmentally certified paper, and some of the paper qualities used also have an eco-label. Upon request, all prints and publications can be printed on environmentally friendly paper, such as recycled paper. The colour units of the copy machines at our customers’ use can be refilled.