Bon Appétit Management Company Receives Acterra Award for Sustainability
Prestigious environmental award honors Bay Area pioneer for leadership in multiple areas
March 24, 2016 (Palo Alto, CA) – Acterra has announced the recipients of the 2016 Business Environmental Awards, identifying nine Bay Area companies and organizations that have demonstrated extraordinary environmental leadership from among a highly competitive field of applicants. Bon Appétit Management Company was honored to be selected as the recipient of the Acterra Award for Sustainability, Acterra’s highest award, which recognizes businesses whose programs achieve significant triple bottom line benefits (people, planet, profit) and advance the state of sustainability in a given industry or across industry sectors.
Acterra’s Business Environmental Awards is one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s oldest and most prestigious environmental recognition programs. Begun in 1990, it is considered a champion among awards programs due to its broad geographic scope and rigorous judging process.
Bon Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company offering full food-service management to corporations, universities, and museums as well as public restaurants across the country. Its dozens of Bay Area clients include Google, Williams-Sonoma, Santa Clara University, Oracle, and VMware (which hosted a site visit by the Acterra judges).
“Bon Appétit has brought the concepts of sustainability to the food service industry and is truly a leader when it comes to local purchasing, animal welfare, and minimizing environmental impact,” wrote the judges in their decision to bestow the Acterra Award for Sustainability on Bon Appétit in the large organization category. “This Palo Alto–based company was the first in the food service industry to support local agriculture companywide, fight for farmworkers’ rights, serve seafood that meets Seafood Watch sustainability guidelines, reduce antibiotic use in farm animals, serve rBHG-free milk, switch to cage-free eggs (shell and liquid), serve humanely raised ground beef, and purchase fish-aggregating devices (FAD)-free tuna. Their Low Carbon Lifestyle program focuses on prioritizing plant-based proteins, preventing and reducing food waste, reducing transportation, and decreasing deforestation. Bon Appétit is committed to using fewer products from cows and other ruminant animals, which emit methane, eliminating air-freighted and packaged products, and minimizing food waste. These and other efforts minimize the company’s carbon footprint, while educating their customers how their own food choices can impact climate change.”
Bon Appétit CEO Fedele Bauccio at the Garden at AT&T Park
Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appétit’s CEO and cofounder, said, “We’re very honored — we know that our competition for this award was stiff. While it’s wonderful to have our work acknowledged by Acterra, we still have so much to do to fix our broken food system. I hope others will be inspired to join us on this journey.”
Acterra Executive Director Adam Stern said, “We’re excited to be recognizing these leaders, who are setting examples for other businesses and organizations to follow.” Since its inception, the program has recognized over 180 businesses and organizations for exemplary environmental leadership. Among the recent recipients are Solazyme, Joint Venture Silicon Valley, Santa Clara University, NASA, Symantec Corporation, City of Palo Alto, Google, Annie’s, and Integral Group.
The 2016 awardees will be honored at the Business Environmental Awards Reception on May 26 at Intuit in Mountain View.
About Bon Appétit Management Company
Bon Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company operating 650-plus cafés in 31 states for corporations, universities, and museums as well as The Commissary, Public House, STEM Kitchen and Garden, and other public restaurants. Bon Appétit food is cooked from scratch, including sauces, stocks, and soups. Bon Appétit is proud to have previously received awards from organizations including the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the James Beard Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Seafood Choices Alliance, and The Humane Society of the United States.
About Acterra
Acterra is a non-profit organization with the mission of creating local solutions for a healthy planet. Since 1970, Acterra has been involving and educating individuals, businesses and communities to address climate change, be energy efficient, restore natural habitat, and promote corporate sustainability. For more information, visit www.acterra.org or follow @PlanetActerra or the Acterra Facebook page.