{"id":1467,"date":"2024-03-20T12:02:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-20T12:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/business\/?p=1467"},"modified":"2024-05-09T09:59:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-09T09:59:26","slug":"scaling-sustainably-with-compass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/business\/2024\/03\/20\/scaling-sustainably-with-compass\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaling sustainably with Eurest and Compass"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
How Eurest and parent company Compass are successfully cutting their carbon footprint as they grow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Rees Bramwell is the Head of Nutrition and Sustainability at Eurest and 14Forty, the Business and Industry arm of Compass Group UK & Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As part of Compass, Eurest and 14Forty are working towards a shared goal of reaching Net Zero by 2030. Not only is that the most ambitious Net Zero goal in the catering industry – but they might just be on track to hit that target a few years ahead of schedule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Food Waste Action Week, we sat down with Rees to talk through how they\u2019re supercharging their progress to Net Zero – with a focus on the innovative steps Eurest are taking to fight food waste as part of that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During our chat, we covered everything from balancing growth with Compass Group\u2019s green focus, to the rare silver bullets in sustainability. We also spoke about how food waste sits neatly in both the sustainability and social impact strategy workstreams, and how Olio is helping with that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Could you tell us about Eurest and 14Forty and the work you do with your clients?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees: <\/strong>\u201cAt Eurest and 14Forty, we do catering and facilities management for workplaces up and down the UK – from distribution centres to call centres and offices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that could be anything from just vending machines to full catering services offering hot meals, and everything in between. I\u2019m head of Head of Nutrition and Sustainability across the two businesses, which sit underneath Compass as our parent company.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What does sustainability look like at Eurest and 14Forty? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees:<\/strong> \u201cWe\u2019ve committed to achieving Net Zero by 2030 across scopes 1, 2 and 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To do that, we\u2019re working across the value chain – starting from our supply chain partners to reduce emissions , right through to when that food is delivered to sites and how our kitchen teams work with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A huge bulk of the work happens in these two areas, but right at the end we\u2019ve got waste, which we analyze forensically<\/strong>. We\u2019re trying to reduce waste from every angle – and that\u2019s really a necessity for us from a social, environmental and financial perspective.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Cutting carbon emissions by nearly 10% in 4 years – without compromising on growth<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Net Zero by 2030 is a pretty ambitious goal. How\u2019s that going?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees: <\/strong>\u201cYes – it is. It\u2019s the most ambitious in the catering industry. And it\u2019s going really well – our Net Zero goal has been incorporated into everyone\u2019s role, which means it\u2019s everyone\u2019s responsibility to hit that target. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve recently released our Compass Transition Plan, too – which sets out our strategic direction to achieve our goal, factoring in other holistic environmental targets. We also released our annual Compass Group UK progress report back in February, and it was great to see that although we grew as a business by 20% last year, that hasn\u2019t compromised our sustainability progress. We\u2019ve still managed to cut carbon emissions by 9.4%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And because of that rapid growth, we\u2019re looking at emissions from a perspective of carbon intensity – so how much carbon we\u2019re emitting per pound we spend. This is a more reliable metric when we\u2019re growing at the speed we are, and we\u2019re at 25% emission intensity reduction. Given our plans to continue that growth, this is going to be the most important thing to track.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Leading the way to Net Zero with a transition plan that\u2019s the first of its kind <\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Congratulations – that\u2019s some really impressive progress. Can you share more detail on Compass\u2019 transition plan, and what\u2019s included within that? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees: <\/strong>\u201cWe\u2019ve got 6 pillars that we look at within the plan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Water footprint<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Biodiversity<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Deforestation<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Carbon<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Packaging<\/li>\n\n\n\n
Waste<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
And those 6 pillars inform every decision that we make within the business – and making sure that we\u2019re not solving one problem and creating another!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as our Climate Promise, we\u2019ve also got our Social Promise to support a million lives by 2030. And that really ties into our food waste goals – you\u2019ve got to factor in the social responsibility we have there too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Are there any other innovative ways you\u2019re tracking progress towards your sustainability goals? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
In B&I, across our 800 units, we use menu management software called The Source to measure portions served and also what exactly we\u2019re wasting. We even go as granular as to look at trimmings and peelings. That all feeds into our food waste dashboard, and that allows us to look at how we\u2019re doing as a whole, but also on a site-by-site basis too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t many silver bullets in sustainability, but food waste might just be one of them – it\u2019s a total no-brainer<\/span>\u201d. <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Our dashboards are a prevention measure, but it\u2019s also a really useful training tool for chefs and kitchen teams, to help us support them in wasting less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Olio\u2019s reports help us track the additional bit, which is the redistribution phase. We bring the two reporting streams together to measure our progress, so we have no blind spots and a full 360 view on food waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, we know that just across Eurest and 14Forty, we donated 10,000 meals to the local community near those sites last year. There aren\u2019t many silver bullets in sustainability, but food waste might just be one of them – it\u2019s a total no-brainer.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
How are you embedding sustainability within the Compass culture? Have you found any quick wins to engage staff with the sustainability strategy you\u2019ve laid out? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees: <\/strong>\u201cIn lots of cases, teams may not be motivated by the higher corporate level Net Zero goals, so we have to make it real for them. Let\u2019s take food waste for example. We can bring that to life by thinking about the financial implications, the resources that are wasted, or the people that could have eaten it. We just try to make it as human as possible – I think then, you\u2019re hard pushed to find someone who doesn\u2019t care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe just try to make it as human as possible – I think then, you\u2019re hard pushed to find someone who doesn\u2019t care<\/span>\u201d <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Whether you\u2019re a massive foodie or not -food is such an integral part of everyone\u2019s life. It\u2019s highly personal. If we can treat the food we waste in our kitchens like the food we waste at home, we can create a connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve also implemented some smaller touches that don\u2019t feel too mandated or judgemental, that are easy for people to get behind. We\u2019ve got an app called Giki which allows employees to roughly measure their own personal carbon footprint, and look at how they can make positive lifestyle changes. Through those sorts of initiatives, we can get across that this is a journey that we\u2019re all on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are there any sustainability wins that you\u2019re particularly proud of? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees: <\/strong>\u201cWithout a doubt it\u2019s our food waste, especially at Eurest and 14Forty. Our Managing Director is so passionate about it, so we have weekly and fortnightly calls at every single level of the business to discuss that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Compared to our 2020 baseline, we\u2019ve reduced our waste by 47% over a period of 4 years. Our dashboard has helped us work that out. And at Compass, we\u2019ve got goals to half food waste by 2030. Because of how well we\u2019re doing, we\u2019re going to try to aim to achieve that by 2025 across B&I. We\u2019ve been so thorough, and we\u2019re really proud of the results we\u2019ve seen – we just need to keep the momentum up!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
How does Olio tie into all the sustainability and social impact work you\u2019re doing?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees:<\/strong> \u201cIn our line of work, we want to have enough food available to serve our customers, so to a degree, there is always going to be an element of surplus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we felt so uncomfortable with that ending up in the bin, so we knew we needed to find routes to redistribute that. In some areas, we can find local charities, but that just doesn\u2019t work at scale. So Olio helps us solve that problem in a way that\u2019s consistent, and gives us a way to measure the impact of that redistributed food consistently, too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOlio just makes the whole redistribution process easy<\/span>\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
And Olio is so simple and user-friendly, too. If we didn\u2019t have Olio as a central point of contact coordinating volunteer collections, we\u2019d be having to rely on our employees to really go the extra mile to arrange that, which wouldn\u2019t be fair to expect from every site. So for us, Olio just makes the whole redistribution process easy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plus, lots of our employees are from the local area, so as well as feeding into the sustainability work we do, it helps our teams see that we really care about making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is there anything that has exceeded your expectations from working with Olio? <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s probably the simplicity. And I know from our sites that there\u2019s generally really good relationships with the volunteers, which ties into what I was saying about sites being invested and connected to the local area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reporting is a huge bonus, both to have sight of what\u2019s happening in terms of our impact but also as a way of identifying areas for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
What would you say to anyone who was concerned about the food safety element of redistributing food through a service like Olio?<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rees:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s a very valid concern, and I do understand that sometimes sites can have worries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with Olio, it’s been simple. It\u2019s developed over time – we did start off pretty cautious, as you can imagine! But as the relationship has grown, we\u2019ve got more confident. We have a really clear guide that Olio has helped us create which reassures sites on what they can and can\u2019t donate, and how food needs to be handled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been iterations of that guide, so it\u2019s now pretty detailed. As a catering business, food safety is one of our top priorities, so it\u2019s been great that we\u2019ve found a way to get sites confident in doing that via an iterative process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m really pleased about that, because Olio isn\u2019t just a way to reduce food waste – it sits really nicely across both our sustainability and social impact initiatives.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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