Ginger Catering-Our Major Partner

Janet Jeffs owner of Ginger Catering is an inspiration, not only in the kitchen but behind the scenes also. She and her team have developed an extensive green policy for all operations including the Cafe in the House, The Ginger Room fine dining restaurant, The Kitchen Cabinet produce store, and all catering including their new Gingerbread offsite catering service. Below is an abstract of the Ginger Catering Green Policy and their commitment to environmental sustainability and innovation.





Ginger Catering at Old Parliament House serves in a single year approximately 150,000 customers across all outlets. This presents a need to develop practical ideas for improving sustainability.
Our firm commitment to developing sustainable business practices means that we consistently assess ways to reduce our impact on the environment. We are also aware that our staff are learning with us.
The restrictions necessarily imposed in a heritage listed building are offset by the opportunities this high-profile location gives us. Located in the heart of the national capital, we see ourselves as responsible for adopting and modelling best practices in sustainability.
Ginger Catering has registered to become a Green Table Australia certified business under the recently launched Restaurant & Catering Australia accreditation scheme. The Green Table scheme is designed as an add-on to the restaurant accreditation scheme and is intended to recognise restaurants and catering businesses that are reducing their CO2 emissions.
Our present focus is on three main areas of environmental impact:
Energy and water conservation

• An upgrade of the commercial kitchen equipment was done in April 2008 significantly lowering energy consumption and improving water efficiency
• A commercial conveyer belt dishwasher was installed to the main function / production kitchen to reduce water and energy consumption and to achieve recycling of the majority of the water.
• The use of natural gas for heating and cooking, rather than electricity
• All non-essential power, including lights, is turned off when not needed as a routine practice

Waste management and recycling
• Glass recycling
• Plastic recycling
• Cardboard/paper recycling
• Used cooking oil recycling for bio diesel
• Green waste recycling for composting
• Redirecting waste from landfill
• recycling of toner cartridges
• Disposal of Styrofoam boxes
• Disposal of scrap metal
• Disposal of fluorescent light tubes
• Use of environmentally sensitive products
• Recycling of unused fresh food – we are keen participants in the local charity food recovery program Oz Harvest.

Environmentally sensitive procedures
Ginger Catering casual as well as fulltime staff are trained to be conscientious in their handling of chemicals and to implement carefully our firm policies and procedures for the use, storage and disposal of all chemicals required in operating a food handling business. Material safety data sheets are prominently displayed for all chemicals used within the business. Every effort has been made to minimise the use of any bleach or caustic based chemicals in the work place, to minimise harmful products entering our waterways. We are currently investigating alternative cleaning products as part of our regular products assessments.

Old Parliament House, King George Terrace, Parkes ACT 2600 Australia Bookings 02 6273 4366 Email info@gingercatering.com.au