Bon Appetit puts its money where your mouth is
Bon Appetit is taking strides that could have reverberations throughout the food industry, including: Buying 25 percent less beef, Buying 10 percent less cheese, Cutting tropical fruit purchases in half, Cutting food waste 20 percent by educating staff
Jumping out in front of the other three big food service companies, Bon Appetit has just announced that beginning on Earth Day (April 22), it will be taking major steps to reduce its contribution to greenhouse gases.
Serving 80 million meals a year in 400 locations, the company's buying and promotion decisions have a large impact, and now, in the midst of a three-year "carbon diet" initiative, Bon Appetit is taking strides that could have reverberations throughout the food industry, including:
Buying 25 percent less beef
Buying 10 percent less cheese
Cutting tropical fruit purchases in half
Cutting food waste 20 percent by educating staff
Bon Appetit also has a fun carbon-impact calculator for members of the eating public to assess how their choices are affecting the environment.
The measures taken so far by Aramark, Chartwells and Sodexo (formerly Sodexho) are similar to those already undertaken by Bon Appetit, such as attempting to buy "more locally," "organically" and "humanely." Aramark has touted its "Sustainable seafood" program, which does not focus on quantity but on catching procedures. Chartwells, which focuses on academic food service, has some great per-college menus but nothing similar on this company-wide scale. In short, the major food service companies have so far given great lip service to sustainability, but have not reached this level of action to back it up.
Still, with Earth Day approaching it's a great excuse for them to announce serious change along these lines, and it may be that Bon Appetit just got its press release out first.
We can hope so, anyway. "Green" competition among the top food-service providers can only benefit consumers and the planet alike, and with more large institutions publicly recognizing the connection between diet and global warming, pressure will increase to really do something going forward. It will be an interesting period as we see whether anyone else matches, or tops, the measures just announced by Bon Appetit.