Going for Gold: Our targets for success

What do we need to have achieved before we can declare London a Sustainable Fish City? As you can imagine, we've given this a lot of thought. Ideally - of course - we would like all suppliers of fish for London to be trading only in fish from sustainable sources. But we have to have some targets along the way to help us get there. It won't happen overnight, it will take a lot of hard work, and we need some interim targets to help us celebrate successes along the way and inspire others to join in.

We'd also like to make best use of the inspiration of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with their commitment to serving only sustainable fish in Games catering. At the time of the public launch of Sustainable Fish City (January 2010), that's only 564 days to go! We have therefore decided to aim to "make significant progress by 2012", in time for the Games, and to set ourselves ambitious goals, to see what can be achieved with concerted action and a lot of hard work and enthusiasm.

We will publish regular updates on progress via our news page and email list.

So, by 2012 and the arrival of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, we aim to have achieved the following. For each of the sectors below, we will have received Sustainable Fish City pledges, and the pledging organisations will have started to take specific actions to improve the sustainability of fish, as follows:

London's citizens

We'd like to engage thousands of London's citizens in supporting Sustainable Fish City and asking for businesses to join in. Please consider signing up to help us achieve the targets set out on this page!

London Boroughs

London Boroughs have an influential role to play in helping make London a Sustainable Fish City. As employers of large numbers of staff, they buy food for canteens, meetings and events. And they may also influence or govern the buying policies of organisations within their boroughs, such as hospitals, schools, care homes and tourist attractions. We will aim for:

• London Boroughs: The majority of London's 33 boroughs. We will ask London Boroughs to pass a resolution to use sustainable fish in their own catering, and to use their influence to encourage public and private-sector organisations in their area to follow suit.
• Schools: Several champion schools in each borough, with an aim for the majority. Many are already participating in the Marine Stewardship Council's Fish & Kids project, and/or in the Food for Life programme to improve school catering, including sustainable fish.
• Hospitals and care homes: Several champion hospitals and state-run care homes in each borough, with an aim for the majority.
• Tourist attractions: Several publicly funded tourist attractions (e.g. museums) in each borough.

Universities and colleges

Universities and colleges have a fantastic opportunity not only to serve sustainable fish, but also to communicate the importance of this issue to their students and staff. We will therefore aim for:

• Universities and colleges: Several champion universities and colleges in each borough.
• London University Caterers Association: Integration of sustainable fish into procurement contracts, particularly collaborative contracts to achieve economies of scale.

Police, armed forces and other public sector institutions

Some public institutions (such as the Metropolitan Police) are not governed by London Boroughs; and many national public institutions are based in London, and governed by national policy. All of their staff and clients certainly eat a lot of food here! So we will also work to influence - where we can - the fish-buying policies of:

National public-sector institutions (the following are covered by the new national Government Buying Standards, which contain a commitment to at least a proportion of sustainable fish - we will support the adoption of a more ambitious commitment):

• Parliament
• Prisons
• Ministry of Defence and armed forces
• Government departments and civil service
• Nationally funded museums, art galleries and tourist attractions

London-wide public-sector institutions (the following are part of the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group that committed, just prior to the public launch of the Sustainable Fish City campaign, to implementing the London 2012 sustainable food standards, which includes a commitment to sustainable fish):

• London Metropolitan Police
• Transport for London
• London Fire Brigade
• Greater London Authority (catering for staff, meetings and events)

Events and tourist attractions in London

Flushed by the success of persuading the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to adopt a sustainable fish policy, we will aim to influence the procurement policies of other major festival and sports events that take place in London in the near future. This will include:

• London art galleries and cultural venues that have catering facilities
• London tourist attractions that serve food
• London places of interest that will host the London 2012 Olympian and Paralympian teams
• Major festivals and sports events

Big food businesses

The big food businesses that operate in London have an enormous influence on our choices, and our ability to buy and consume sustainable fish. A few companies in each sector are taking action on sustainable fish, but not yet enough. We need to create more momentum for change. We will aim for:

• High-street supermarkets: The majority. Most of the big brand names are already working on their sustainable fish policies, although some need to make more rapid and significant progress. We will work with our partner organisations to encourage specific improvements with those household-name supermarkets who are still laggards on sustainable fish.
• Private sector caterers: Most of us eat their food at some point, and probably every week. Over half the fish we eat is eaten outside the home in the fish dishes, sandwiches and food for meetings and events that is consumed all over London. We will aim for all of the really big caterers operating in London to take the Sustainable Fish City pledge, and for at least some of the smaller players.
• Chains of Sandwich shops and cafes - those with many outlets across London - we will aim for a majority of these, and for at least some of the smaller players.
• Wholesale fish suppliers (the main ones serving London): By focusing our efforts "upstream" in the supply chain, we can have a lot of influence on what is sold in our city, and help smaller businesses (who often can't afford the staff time or research to examine the source of their fish) to buy sustainable fish with more confidence. We will therefore aim for a majority of major fish suppliers to have taken the Sustainable Fish City pledge.
• Manufacturers of processed and tinned products and ready meals.
• High-profile specialist food stores: We will aim for a majority of these.

Smaller food businesses 

In the following sectors, we will aim to achieve some Sustainable Fish City pledges in each borough. However, we recognise that smaller businesses will face challenges in undertaking the necessary research and investment of time to make the switch to sustainable fish. We have a different approach for these organisations. We will ask them to take the Sustainable Fish City pledge "in principle" and to share with us the name of their supplier. By going "upstream" in the supply chain, we hope to work with suppliers to ensure that what they sell to smaller businesses comes from a sustainable source. This will include conversations with:

• Discount supermarkets
• Symbol or franchise stores and neighbourhood shops
• Fish and chip shops (chains of stores and independent outlets)
• Independent fishmongers
• Smaller wholesale suppliers, for whom fish may be only a part of their offer

Employers in London

Employers of large numbers of staff usually have canteens or foodservice outlets for their employees. Businesses could help make London a Sustainable Fish City by requiring that all fish served is from sustainable sources. We are interested in asking these businesses to adopt a sustainable fish policy, and in particular those who are London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic sponsors. We will aim for:

• London 2012 sponsors: All of them that commission or serve food to employees and clients
• Large employers: A few high-profile organisations, with an aim to win more over time. Many of these will be served by the major contract caterers, so we hope to help create a combination of demand from employers and willingness from contract caterers to serve sustainable fish.