Mark This! Podcast, Episode 23, Sustainability Mythbusting
Host: Heather Dotchel, Corporate Communications
Guests: Kate Hanley, Global Climate Strategy Director for Aramark
It's time to Mark This, a podcast in which we peel back the corporate curtain to reveal the cool and innovative people, programs, and projects that are happening all over Aramark's lines of business. I'm Heather Dotchel.
As a member of Aramark's communication team, I see and hear amazing things that are happening across our company every day. These remarkable initiatives happen because we have remarkable people behind them, building opportunity, building innovation, and building community.
Let's bust three myths and misconceptions about climate impact and how Aramark and its partners can serve responsible environmental stewardship. We are speaking today with Kate Hanley, Global Climate Strategy Director for Aramark. Kate, tell us all about you.
Hi, Heather. Thanks for having me. Really happy to be here. So my role on the enterprise sustainability team is to lead Aramark's climate strategy, which means helping to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, working in partnership across the organization to implement initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint, and measuring progress towards our goals. My whole career has been sustainability. I studied business and environmental science in graduate school and for the last 15 years I've been working on a broad range of sustainability topics and issues across multiple sectors.
I spent five years in environmental nonprofit, EDF, a few years in local government as a sustainability director for the historic town of Concord, Massachusetts, and now here at Aramark in corporate sustainability. So climate action has really been my driving force and I was really excited about the opportunity to take on this challenge at Aramark when I started three years ago because the scale of the opportunity. When Aramark makes a change, it really has an impact. And I was also really excited because personally I'm passionate about food. My husband is a chef so food is a big part of my daily life and I also currently have a toddler. So we're having fun exposing her to new foods and seeing what she likes, which right now is pretty much mac and cheese and strawberries.
I remember that diet well from when mine were little. So before we get into these myths or misconceptions, I'd like to ask you to talk in general about environmental impact and sustainability and why it's important to Aramark and its Be Well Do Well platform please.
Sure. Environmental sustainability is one of the core elements of Be Well Do Well, which is Aramark's environmental, social, and governance, ESG, platform. Be Well Do Well was launched in 2019 with this focus on making a positive impact on people and planet. And our planet goal is to promote planetary health on our path to net-zero emissions. So why is that important to Aramark you ask? It's really pretty simple. It's important to our clients, to our communities, to our guests, and so it's important to our business and our value proposition. Our stakeholders really expect that we're proactive in managing environmental performance from the food we serve and the products we use and the way we operate our kitchens and facilities. Really from top to bottom.
From the purchases that we make to the waste we generate, our buildings, our fleet. It's also right there in our mission, which is because we're rooted in service, we do great things for our people, our partners, our community, and our planet. So environmental sustainability as I see it is truly part of our license to operate.
All right. Fantastic. Let's get into it. Myth number one, food waste is one of the biggest sources of the company's emissions.
This is one of my favorite myths to bust because the reality is that food waste makes up only about 2% of our carbon footprint. When I say only, let's be clear, Aramark is a really big company so even 2% of our footprint is significant. And globally, reducing food waste is one of the top actions that individuals households can take to reduce emissions. So it's totally understandable to me that food waste is really top of mind for folks. It's also really visible, right? You eat food and you see what's left over. And so even though it's not the largest source of Aramark's emissions, it's part of our climate strategy because it is part of our carbon footprint. It's that 2%. And food waste is also really quite prominent in our Be Well Do Well sustainability platform.
Minimizing food waste is one of the four planet pillars and that's because food waste is really a win-win initiative. It's a win for the environment because when it's not wasted, it stays out of the landfill, which generates emissions and it's a financial win because food costs money. You think about a carrot, all the resources that go into growing and harvesting that carrot, then the transport to get it to the kitchen and the prep, the labor, serving it to you. You want that carrot to be eaten, not thrown away, because there's a lot invested in that carrot when it shows up on your plate.
So if waste isn't the biggest source, what is and how do we effectively attack emissions?
By far, the largest source of emissions when you look at Aramark's total carbon footprint is food. About half of Aramark's footprint comes from food that we serve, which makes sense when you think about it. We're a food service company. That's why Aramark's made a commitment to reduce food emissions 25% by 2030 through the Coolfood Pledge with the World Resources Institute. We are the first food service provider based in the US to take the Coolfood Pledge and we're really quite proud of that. We have a strong focus on food emissions because it's our most significant source of emissions and we're also working on a pathway to reduce our entire carbon footprint. So for example, we're pursuing renewable energy, electric vehicles, minimizing food waste as we talked about. So the Coolfood Pledge is just one of the commitments we've made to reduce emissions and ultimately achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Working in close collaboration with our clients on reducing emissions is really key to success because that's where things come to life. Our great example in Aramark Destinations is the Summit Visitor Center Restaurant at Pike's Peak. They're now a four-star certified green restaurant, which means they've implemented a lot of environmental sustainability efforts to get this certification, including a few that focus on carbon emissions. So they're offering more sustainable low-carbon menus, they've installed energy-efficient fixtures and appliances, and they're using a cool AI-powered waste disposal expert to minimize their waste.
Another really good example of this is Loyola University in Chicago and they have a sustainable catering program where event planners can opt into a higher standard of sustainability for a catering event. So there's a standard of a checklist that includes things like no disposable items and a higher number of plant-based and vegetarian dishes that really allow for a more sustainable low-carbon event.
So let's talk more about emissions from food. Myth number two is that the logistics of food travel has the largest effect on climate impact. What's the reality of that statement?
The reality is that when you look at emissions from a food product, the transportation of that food from its source to your dish makes up three to 5% of the product's carbon footprint. And that's because the carbon impact of the production and processing of that food is so much larger than the transport. So take for example beef, which has the second-highest carbon footprint of any type of food. There are cows, they use agricultural resources, land, water, food. They also emit methane. Everyone loves to laugh about those cow burps, but it's really true. And then there's a processing of those beef products into what we actually buy and all of that has a significant carbon footprint and that's much, much larger than the emissions from the transport of that final product to the store or the restaurant.
Where can we make a bigger impact and how do we do that?
The biggest impact we can make is through a lower carbon diet, which is a diet that's more plant rich and plant forward. Meat and dairy have a much higher carbon footprint than plants. So beef and lamb in particular have the highest carbon footprint, producing more emissions than other types of meat like chicken and pork, followed by dairy, milk, and then plant proteins like beans and then fruits and vegetables. So there's this hierarchy and the difference can be really stark when you compare the top and the bottom of the list. So for example, beef emits 20 times more emissions than plant-based proteins. So put really simply, less meat and more plants makes for a low carbon diet. And how we're doing that at Aramark is through climate friendly menus, providing low carbon, delicious, nutrition options for our diners. One of our signature programs is Cool Food Meals, certified low carbon recipes.
We partner with WRI, the World Resources Institute, to certify recipes that have a lower carbon footprint and meet a nutritional standard, which is really important to the program as well, that we're promoting and certifying recipes that are also nutritious. Another myth that we hear a lot is that Cool Food Meals are all vegan or vegetarian, but it's really worth noting that Cool Food Meals are not all vegan and vegetarian. Many of them have animal proteins like chicken, cheese, pork. Sun Devil Hospitality at Arizona State University has been one of our leaders in deploying Cool Food Meals. In the early days of this program, we piloted it with a few accounts in collegiate hospitality and ASU is one of the first to deploy it and they've really integrated these low carbon meals into their menu planning and they've gone above and beyond to engage and inform diners about what it means to be a low carbon meal and why you would want to choose one with pop-up events, tastings, and other fun and new ways to keep the program really exciting and always delicious.
It's important that climate friendly menus are never about limiting choice, but rather improving and expanding and adding choice. The goal should be to make it really easy for diners to choose a meal that looks good, sounds good, tastes good, and by the way, is also low carbon because we know taste and flavor always win.
Something that is really interesting to me is the question of scale in impact. Do these actions really matter?
It's really not all or nothing. We don't need to all eat vegan all the time. Even just shifting one beef burger a week to a low carbon certified Cool Food Meal saves the equivalent emissions of driving your car over 3000 miles. 3000 miles. That matters. Scale obviously is really important though and we're working on that. So we now have Cool Food Meals in three lines of business, in collegiate hospitality, workplace hospitality, and healthcare plus. Some of our clients are really leaning into this and taking it to the next level. So for example, Fordham University in New York, they've been serving Cool Food Meals for several years now and they've had such positive feedback and success with this that they've amped up their leadership on climate by signing on to the New York City Mayor's Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge, which is a commitment in New York City to reduce food emissions 25% by 2030, which is a commitment that Aramark has also signed on to.
So I love that idea that it's not all or nothing, that we can all make little changes. As a person who does love a burger, it's good to know that I can make small changes and I don't have to give something up on the whole, but can make a big impact by just a small modification.
So I'd love to clear that up too. All right. Let's talk about our final myth number three. We're just all doing this because it's the right thing to do.
I love this myth because of course it is the right thing to do and it's good for business. Increasingly, our team is engaged in growth and retention efforts because our clients and our consumers are paying attention. Our clients have very similar goals to ours to achieve net-zero emissions, to meet the needs of their diners for healthy and sustainable food and to operate efficiently. So there's incredible alignment with our clients, which is a great opportunity for us, for our partnership, and for business growth. And for all those reasons there's broad leadership to support to tackle food emissions and achieve our commitments to reduce food emissions 25% by 2030.
It's certainly a challenge. We won't just get there without conscious and conscientious action, but there's so much alignment with so many of our clients that we can work together to chart a pathway to get there. Another related myth that we hear often is that it's just college and university students, Gen Z, that are interested in sustainability and that really could not be further from the truth. Consumer research shows, and we see this day-to-day, that there's an interest in sustainable eating across demographics and we are delivering across lines of business. I already mentioned destinations and collegiate hospitality. Another great success story from this year that I really love that our teams have implemented is the Better-Off Burgers concept at the Colorado Rockies.
It's offering delicious plant-based burgers, shakes, and mortar, Rockies fans, which is engaging those plant-based consumers that may not otherwise be engaged and bringing in diners across the spectrum because it's delicious. At the end of the day, we're a company devoted to hospitality and what could be better aligned with that than serving delicious food that also ensures a sustainable future?
And that sounds like the perfect place to wrap up. Want to know more about Aramark's sustainability efforts? Visit our newsroom on aramark.com to access more information. I'd like to offer a big thanks to Kate for joining us today and also as always to our listeners for being part of our conversation here at Mark This.
