Sustainable Fish City

About Sustainable Fish City

Sustainable Fish City is an initiative conceived and supported by an alliance of not-for-profit organisations already working on sustainable seafood issues. Some also run advisory or support services that can help businesses to develop sustainable seafood policies and practices. We want London to become the first ever Sustainable Fish City, to show what can be done if people and organisations make a concerted effort to change their buying habits. Find out more about the targets we aim to reach before we declare London a Sustainable Fish City.

Some of the Sustainable Fish City working group helped the organisers of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to help them make a commitment to buy only sustainable fish. Now we want London to take this further, and make sure all of the seafood we buy and eat is sustainable. The links below will help you to find out more.

    Fish Members of the Sustainable Fish City working group

    Fish Other initiatives that Sustainable Fish City supports

    Fish Sustainable Fish City associate organisations

    Fish Sustainable Fish City funders

If you'd like to get involved or have any questions, contact Sustainable Fish City c/o Sustain, 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF. Tel: 020 7837 1228; email: fish@sustainweb.org.

Members of the Sustainable Fish City working group

Marine Conservation Society Marine Conservation Society: (MCS) the UK charity dedicated to the protection of the marine environment and its wildlife, which publishes authoritative sustainability ratings of fish and fisheries, see: http://www.fishonline.org/
Marine Stewardship Council: (MSC) which runs a fishery certification programme and seafood ecolabel to help consumers pick the best environmental choice in seafood. Also provides MSC Chain of Custody certification so that fisheries and seafood businesses can get certified to the MSC standards to show that they support sustainable fishing.
Pisces Responsible Fish Restaurants Pisces Responsible Fish Restaurants: a restaurant-led initiative that seeks out and links good fishermen with chefs, overcoming practical issues to help chefs to get better fish onto plates.
Seafood Choices Alliance Seafood Choices Alliance (a project of SeaWeb): a non-profit organisation that helps the seafood industry - from fishermen and fish farmers to processors, distributors, retailers, restaurants, and food service providers - to make the seafood marketplace environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. Seafood Choices also coordinates Good Catch, a collaborative initiative (also involving the MCS, MSC and Sustain) that helps people in foodservice navigate the subject of seafood sustainability with user-friendly materials and activities, including The Good Catch Manual, training workshops and visits to sustainable fisheries, markets and suppliers.
Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming coordinates the Sustainable Fish City campaign. This includes convening the working group, recruiting new signatories and public support for the Sustainable Fish City pledge, referring organisations that sign up to expert support to make the necessary changes to use sustainable fish. Sustain's involvement also includes support from the following Sustain campaigns and projects:
  • Ethical Eats, working with restaurants and caterers in London to improve their sustainability
  • London Food Link, a network of individuals, organisations and businesses interested in healthy and sustainable food
  • Good Food for Our Money, seeking health and sustainability standards for all public sector food
  • Good Food on the Public Plate, helping London's public sector to buy and serve healthy and sustainable food
Fish2Fork Fish2Fork: the world’s first website to review restaurants according to whether their seafood is sustainable, and not just how it tastes. It is brought to you by the people behind the film, The End of the Line (the film that was one of the inspirations behind the launch of the Sustainable Fish City campaign!)

Note: To maintain its independence, the Sustainable Fish City campaign does not receive financial support from the food, farming or fishing industries.

Other initiatives that Sustainable Fish City supports

Fish Fight

Several of the Sustainable Fish City working party members and associate organisations are also supporters of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Fish Fight campaign. This encourages Government and European policy change to prevent the appalling waste of fish and damage to ocean environments caused by European discard policy. It also encourages consumers and companies to buy responsibly and to eat a wider range of fish, taking the pressure off over-fished species.
Ocean2012 Sustainable Fish City is a member of OCEAN2012, a coalition dedicated to ensuring that the 2012 reform of the Common Fisheries Policy stops overfishing, ends destructive fishing practices and delivers fair and equitable use of healthy fish stocks. By its membership of this coalition, Sustainable Fish City hopes to demonstrate to European policy-makers that there are many thousands of consumers, businesses and policy-makers in the UK that support the vision of a sustainable approach to precious marine life.

 

Associate organisations

The following organisations have also been very helpful in the development and implementation of the Sustainable Fish City campaign, and are groups that can provide support, advice, or that we work with on sustainable fish activities or promotion.

Billingsgate Seafood Training School Billingsgate Seafood Training School: runs courses for young people and foodservice professionals to introduce them to preparing and cooking seafood.
Environmental Justice Foundation

Environmental Justice Foundation: a charity working to empower communities in the global south to overcome environmental problems and find peaceful ways of preventing them.
Fish4Ever Fish4Ever: producers of tinned fish from sustainable sources.
The Fishmongers' Company

The Fishmongers’ Company: one of the 12 Great Livery Companies of the City of London, upholding standards in the trading of fish and shellfish.
Food for Life Catering Mark

The Food for Life Catering Mark is a way for restaurants and caterers to gain recognition for good work serving food that is freshly prepared, free from undesirable additives, better for the environment, and better for animal welfare. In spring 2011, over 300,000 Food for Life award-winning meals are now served weekly in the UK. Among other criteria, to receive a silver award, caterers must exclude use of fish from the Marine Conservation Society 'fish to avoid' list; to receive a gold award, 30 per cent of food spend must be on Marine Stewardship Council certified fish or organic ingredients .

Greenwich Cooperative Development AgencyGreenwich Kitchen

SE Ten

Greenwich Cooperative Development Agency (GCDA) is a successful social enterprise working on a wide range of projects for community and enterprise development, food co-ops, and a Good Food Training programme for people in the catering profession (as part of the SE Ten social enterprise), to improve skills for health and sustainability. GCDA's SE Ten also runs a social enterprise called Greenwich Kitchen Catering that provides healthy and sustainable food, and also kitchen space for hire to other enterprises. 
The Russell Partnership The Russell Partnership are co-authors of the Food Vision for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the UN guidelines for sustainable food within UN operations.
 
School Food Matters

School Food Matters: a charity campaigning for fresh sustainable food in schools and promoting food education through cooking, growing and visits to farms.
Shellfish Association of Great Britain

Shellfish Association of Great Britain: the industry body for shellfish producers, which aims to assist and promote the sustainable development of the UK shellfish industry.
Sustainable Restaurant Association

Sustainable Restaurant Association: a national not-for-profit membership association, providing restaurants with advice and support to help them navigate the whole spectrum of sustainability issues.

 

Funders of Sustainable Fish City

The following organisations (in alphabetical order) are generously providing funds to help with running the Sustainable Fish City campaign. We are very grateful for their support.

BBC Wildlife Fund

The BBC Widlife Fund supports Sustainable Fish City in its work to build a better market for fish that has been managed and caught in a way that conserves wildlife and precious marine ecosystems. The BBC Wildlife Fund, supported by donations from BBC viewers, contributes towards Sustainable Fish City's campaign development and employment of a project officer to pursue campaign aims.
European Fisheries Fund

Sustainable Fish City has received a grant from the European Fisheries Fund to exploit opportunities presented by London 2012's adoption of a sustainable fish policy. This aims to influence the wider catering sector - particularly through adoption of sustainable fish buying policies in large workplaces, such as sponsors of the London 2012 Games.
The John Ellerman Foundation

The John Ellerman Foundation is supporting Sustainable Fish City by contributing towards Sustainable Fish City's campaign development and employment of a project officer to pursue campaign aims.  has i
Mayor of London

In the early stages of Sustainable Fish City, the Mayor of London's Food Programme (part of the Greater London Authority, GLA) supported public sector catering aspects of the initiative, and worked in partnership with Sustain to help influence the London 2012 Food Vision standards. Sustainable Fish City now receives valuable practical support from members of the independent London Food Board and the GLA's Food Programme team and is an affiliated project in the implementation programme of the Mayor's London Food Strategy. 
The Waterloo Foundation

The Waterloo Foundation is supporting development of  Sustainable Fish City communications work, to help take the campaign messages and straightforward sustainable fish advice to a much wider audience.

 



Sustainable Fish City is a Sustain campaign