Measuring the carbon footprint of your F&B

Many businesses must prioritise their carbon footprints due to mandatory sustainability and climate reporting regulations. Even those with established Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies must demonstrate their contributions to sustainable development. So what about your business events?

One significant area for improvement is food sourcing for corporate events, as food is the second largest contributor to a corporate event's carbon footprint (A Net Zero Roadmap for the Events Industry, 2022). To enhance sustainability, event professionals must understand the carbon impacts of menu items and their sourcing.

Creating and measuring a sustainable menu is complex when you layer on cultural, religious, and dietary considerations. However, data visualisation tools, such as the “Food: greenhouse gas emissions across the supply chain” can provide a great source to improve the carbon footprint of your food and beverage (F&B).

When working with a venue or caterers to develop the F&B component of your next experience, ask them to provide not just options, but also the weight of the food types being proposed. Use this data, along with the emissions per kilo made available, to see how changes in the types of food and the corresponding impact on the environmental emissions of your event.

Sources:

• A Net Zero Roadmap for the Events Industry. (2022). Retrieved from: 'https://www.netzerocarbonevents.org/wp-content/uploads/NZCE_Roadmap2022_Full-Report-updated-26Jan2023.pdf' [Online Resource]

• Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2022) - “Environmental Impacts of Food Production” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food' [Online Resource]