An Ambitious Climate Commitment and the Tools to Back it Up

In 2021, Bon Appétit Management Company announced a new climate policy, committing to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 38%, per calorie of food, by 2030.

But this commitment was just the latest in a long series of climate actions we’ve taken over the years. Fifteen years ago, Bon Appétit created the first national program that highlighted the food-climate connection. The Low Carbon Diet created a low-carbon food calculator as well as menu and operational changes our teams implemented to reduce the carbon footprint of their cafés and, in turn, our overall footprint as a company. In 2015, we transitioned to a long term Low Carbon Lifestyle that commits our teams to prioritizing plant-based proteins, preventing and reducing food waste, trimming transportation emissions, and decreasing deforestation.

We’re still following our Low Carbon Lifestyle by continuing to center the critical link between the food system —which is responsible for a whopping 1/3 of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions —and climate change. We’re backing up this public commitment with tools and data, arming our clients and the communities we serve with information and resources they can use, both to hold us accountable to our goals and to take action to reduce their emissions, too.

The Food Standards Dashboard, our proprietary reporting tool, synthesizes a complex set of purchasing and sustainability data to show our chefs and managers where they stand on a wide variety of sustainability, culinary, and wellness initiatives. The Dashboard also delivers World Resources Institute-compatible data tracking that offers a snapshot of where greenhouse gas emissions are most impactful in an operation, showing teams where to take action to reduce their carbon footprint. Bon Appétit can also provide clients with options for operational and menu changes that dramatically reduce carbon impacts, and help identify high-quality carbon offsets such as Regen1, a regenerative agriculture platform that sinks carbon by rewarding farmers for land-stewardship choices.

This Earth Day, as we reflect on 15 years of climate action, we welcome a new paradigm of climate action, one that moves beyond rhetoric and toward transparency and data.