Our Impact
Environmental sustainability
From the way we source our ingredients to how we reduce waste – in all our operations, we do everything we can to help protect the environment.
Gold rated ESG
We achieved a gold rating for exceptional Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance from EcoVadis, placing us among the top 5% of the 100,000 rated companies. EcoVadis is globally renowned as one of the most reputable sources for business sustainability ratings and insights. Its methodology validates corporate adherence to 21 recognised CSR criteria and assesses environmental, social, and ethical strengths and opportunities for organisations worldwide based on international standards like the Global Reporting Initiative and ISO 26000.
“"This gold recognition reflects our unwavering commitment to sustainability excellence and underscores our dedication to minimising environmental impact, supporting social equity, and upholding robust corporate governance practices."”
Wendy Bartlett, MBE, Founder BM
Cutting emissions
We were the first contract caterer to achieve Planet Mark certification, by measuring and reducing our carbon footprint, and we’ve now maintained the accreditation for four years in a row. Key measures are emissions at our headquarters, business travel and paper use. We’ve reduced them significantly each year, and we intend to keep reducing them as part of our commitment to the UN-backed ‘Race to Zero’.
Seasonal eating
Our chefs all care about where our ingredients come from, and the suppliers who gather them for us. We’re proud to cook with seasonal ingredients produced on British farms where we can.
Lower-carbon food
Food production is one of the largest contributors to carbon emissions, with more than a third of man-made greenhouse-gas emissions being generated by the food system. From growing crops to processing, transport, storage and dealing with waste – everything we do with food has an impact on the environment and the climate.
We want to help our customers make informed choices about their food and the impact it has on the planet – which is why we’ve created our Eat with the Earth in Mind range of lower-carbon, planet-friendly dishes. They feature:
- more plant-based proteins
- fewer animal proteins
- reduced waste
- local and seasonal ingredients
- sustainably sourced fish.
We’re also one of the first contract caterers in the UK to add carbon labels to our menus. Each dish has a ‘carbon badge’, similar to nutritional traffic-light labels on food packaging. As well as helping our customers understand the impact of their food choices on the environment, this also helps us see where we can make changes to reduce our carbon footprint.
Organically grown coffee
The Perkee Santo coffee we serve in our cafés is grown on the Camocim Estate in the Pedra Azul region in Brazil, where farmer, Henrique Sloper, follows organic and biodynamic methods. As well as enriching the soil and improving the local environment, this also gives pest-resistant beans and higher-quality coffee.
Less than 5% of the coffee grown worldwide is organic, so the Camocim Estate is a genuine pioneer, growing coffee without pesticides or chemical additives. Its accreditations include the EU Organic certified mark and Demeter biodynamic certification, as well as Produto Organico Brasil.
Sustainability training
Working with the consultancy arm of nutrition software company, Nutritics, we’ve introduced a sustainability awareness educational programme for our team members. Through weekly workshops known as Knowledge Labs, our managers develop educational briefs on sustainability matters to include in their usual team briefings. Topics include carbon and water footprints, climate change and food sustainability, as well as food waste, energy efficiency, greenwashing and biodiversity.
Reducing waste
We hate waste – which is why we’re always looking for inventive new ways to use as much of every ingredient as we can. Our education initiative for chefs, called Wast-ed, offers guidance on using food that would otherwise go in the bin, with recipes such as tomato jam made from the unused bits from our delis and salad bars.
Also, Pete Redman, our Chef Director is an ambassador for Guardians of Grub, a campaign to reduce food waste. For the first ‘roundtable’ of the group, which we hosted, Pete and our food-development team created a menu featuring waste-avoiding dishes such as candied fermented cauliflower leaves, old-bread gnocchi, and breadcrumb sponge.
Most recently, we’ve started creating recipes from waste milk and coffee grounds from our coffee bars and hospitality meeting rooms. Leftover milk goes into tasty treats like coffee soda bread, and orange, almond and polenta cake. And coffee grounds become a key component in recipes such as coffee-braised beef and salt-and-coffee-baked celeriac. We call dishes like this our ‘leftover luxuries’.
Explore more: news and blogs on our impact in sustainability, social responsibility, and ED&I
Our commitment to earth-friendly cuisine
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Jess’s Nicaraguan coffee adventure
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bartlett mitchell achieves record sustainability scores
bartlett mitchell, one of the UK’s leading independent caterers, has retained its three-star Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) – achieving record