9 totally doable sustainability initiatives for foodservice operators

From Sept. 12-14, the streets of San Francisco flooded with scientists, lawmakers and business leaders headed to Gov. Jerry Brown’s Global Climate Action Summit. The city—which has seen elongating wildfire seasons, more frequent and intense heat waves, and rising water levels around the bay—provided an eerie backdrop for the gathering. At one of the summit’s hundreds of affiliated events, environmental nonprofit Acterra hosted foodservice operators at its Climate Friendly Cuisine conference in LinkedIn’s downtown headquarters.

Although the threat of rapidly changing climates hung in the air, speakers shared best practices and advice for how foodservice operators can contribute to a healthier planet. “The people in this room have the opportunity to set the path for what tomorrow’s industry might accomplish,” said Traci Des Jardins, a restaurateur with seven concepts in the Bay Area. “Even minor improvements and efficiency can have a dramatic impact on the bottom line.”

Check out the little things foodservice operations are doing to help curb climate change.

Photographs: Michael Pegram of Orange Photography

Leveling up into a climate-friendly operation starts with curiosity. “You have to do research and you have to really understand what’s happening with the food that we buy from the beginning to what happens to it in the end,” Des Jardins said. For operators on a tight budget, she recommends taking a closer look at some of their hidden expenses: “There’s a cost for cheap food some way along the line, whether it be the cost of exploitation of labor, exploitation of land or just low-quality product.” 

Anthony Myint, co-founder of San Francisco-based Mission Chinese Food, The Perennial and Commonwealth restaurants, said his concepts have worked with an organization that reviews energy bills and food purchasing to help transition to a carbon-neutral operation. As part of the carbon-neutral goal, Mission Chinese Food donates 10 cents per diner toward sustainable causes to offset the carbon footprint of its food.

Carefully selecting refrigeration and cooling equipment can also put operators on more sustainable footing. Historically, one of the biggest causes of food waste at San Francisco’s AT&T Park has been not enough refrigeration space, said Executive Chef of Concessions Toussaint Potter. Now, Potter thinks about design and equipment in his broader sustainability vision.

On a smaller scale, putting extra consideration into the design of trash bins can make a difference, too. “When you have tiny holes that don’t fit everything, people think more about what they put in [the trash],” said Anna Bohbot, food and beverage program manager for LinkedIn.

People are part of foodservice operators’ sustainability plans as well, Des Jardins said. Considering the livelihood of not just staff, but farmers, drivers and everyone in the supply chain can help ensure a more stable workforce, the chef-restaurateur said. “You cannot build a business around fish that are no longer in the ocean or labor that can no longer afford to work.”

For Bon Appetit Management Co., big-picture sustainability emphasizes better farming practices. “We focus more holistically,” said Claire Cummings, waste programs manager for the contract management company. “Our farm-to-fork strategy does not focus on a label, but working with farms that are farming in a way that’s good for the earth.”

Portion sizes are another opportunity to promote public health and sustainability. When Des Jardins first launched her restaurant Jardiniere 21 years ago, she encountered a good deal of sensitivity around reduced portion sizes. Today, she’s reduced portion sizes by about a third at one of her restaurants and hasn’t heard many complaints.

At AT&T Park, Potter works to get better control over nacho cheese portions. To make sure his team members aren’t laying the topping on too thick, Potter walks through each of his restaurants three to five times a day. “It’s constant, like waking up and brushing your teeth,” he said. “You have to take into account the human element involved with it.”

Patients at Kaiser Permanente were not a fan of broccoli. So much so, in fact, that the Oakland, Calif.-based healthcare provider stopped serving the cruciferous vegetable in patient meals. After a simple ad campaign that said, “We stand for broccoli” alongside an image of fresh broccoli, patients started asking for the vegetable again, said Skip Skivington, vice president of healthcare continuity and support services for the company. “That’s the power of marketing, media and suggestion,” he said.

Signage in the right place at the right time is an important low-cost technology, said Dana Gunders, principal at Next Course LLC, a food-waste reduction consulting company. In the past, she’s helped operators set up signs on their foodservice line that say, “We’re trying to waste less food, so if you want a sample let us know” and “We made portions smaller, so feel free to come back for a refill.”

By 2025, 100% of all food purchased and served at Kaiser Permanente will be sustainable. But when Skivington made that pledge in 2015, he didn’t know how he’d achieve it. “Three years later, I can’t say we have a clear path forward, even now,” he said. “When President Kennedy declared in 1960 that they were going to land a man on the moon, they didn’t have a clear path either.” However, in the last few years, the operation has taken several steps toward its goal, including launching 55 farmers markets embedded in its operations. Instead of enforcing drastic changes, Kaiser Permanente tries not to forcibly convert patients to a plant-based lifestyle. “We use a phrase that I think is applicable, ‘Meet the patient where they are,’” he said.

Myint hopes that farm-to-table 2.0 will focus on the health of dirt. If reversing climate change is the goal, then carbon is the metric, he said. Activities such as driving a tractor, tilling soil, overgrazing, clearing forests and degrading water sources can release carbon that was in the soil and plant matter back into the air, contributing to greenhouse gases. “Farmers everywhere can conduct a $10 test to find out their soil organic matter number,” he said. “As buyers, we don’t have that number, we need to have that. If you’re a college admission officer, that’s your GPA.”

Instead of creating rigid goals that all Bon Appetit operations must follow, the company gives units a choice of five different sustainability initiatives, knowing that what's good for one location might not be good for another, Cummings said. So one operation can focus on food recovery, verified by an outside company, and another could commit to sourcing imperfect produce.

Myint suggested foodservice operators also give customers the choice to get involved in sustainability targets. “Give them the option to offset the costs of their carbon footprint by putting it on the check,” he said. “They can choose to pay an extra 20 cents or they can opt out.”

What gets measured gets managed, Cummings said. So Bon Appetit developed a patent-pending proprietary program to track waste. The platform is built specifically for the company’s chefs to help them make a behavioral and cultural change, she said.

Oakland Unified School District started with a more cost-efficient waste-tracking system: designating trash cans for different waste. “Once you start separating bins, you’re seeing what’s happening,” said Nancy Deming, sustainability manager for custodial and nutritional services departments at the Oakland, Calif., district. “When it all goes into one bin, it’s out of sight, out of mind.” Setting up separate receptacles for scraps, edible surplus and other categories of food, allowed the team to make simple changes, such as only sending small quantities of milk to classrooms for after-the-bell breakfast and revisiting recipes to find out why certain items are being tossed. The department also presents videos on food waste and food share to guests, and recruits students to ensure the right products end up in the right bins.

Education and awareness is a daily process, Potter said. The foodservice operator even invited a team member to Acterra’s event to help educate her and the rest of his team. “I brought someone with me, because I believe she’ll reach more people than me standing in a classroom and teaching.”

Bon Appetit takes a similar approach to raising awareness. As part of a fellowship program, young people talk to students and host fun classes about sustainability. “Hearing it from a peer or someone who feels like a peer is different than hearing it from a company,” Cummings said.

To help employees gauge the scale of LinkedIn’s foodservice waste, the company hosts tours of its trash processes every quarter. “It’s eye-opening and impactful, because it's suddenly so real,” Bohbot said. “Some people fear their local waste management service; we partner with them for education.”