While the pandemic is top of mind for
most consumers today. The simple fact is
there will be a tomorrow and retailers that are looking a customer ahead understand that
will include new thinking about how we can make life better, according to
Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru®
at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.
Just
Salad, a chain with the ‘halo’ of better for you’ within its brand
messaging and menu starting in September, will list the carbon emissions of
each item on its menu. Is your brand
looking a customer ahead? Do you think
consumers are interested in calculating their
carbon footprint the same way they count calories? No, well consider that this
is an interactive and participatory way to extend brand value to those
customers that do or would. Would you
reconsider?
Proactive and striving to be a restaurant
industry innovator in sustainability Johnson believes that Just Salad is doing
many of the right things. Did you know that Just Salad has a reusable
bowl program that’s been recognized by the EPA, and last fall it removed beef from its menu in favor of a plant-based analogue.
Just Salads, Chief Sustainability Officer,
Sandra Noonan stated, “The idea behind its latest endeavor is to
encourage diners to think not only about their own health when dining out but
also the planet’s. …“The striking statistic for us was that 26% of global carbon emissions are related to food production,”
Noonan continued, “And as the climate crisis escalates, a
business that operates in the food industry has to be thinking about the link
between food and climate.”
Just Salad says it is the first
restaurant to carbon-label its menu. Companies in other industries are making
similar moves. Consumer goods giant Unilever, for instance, recently said it
will label all of its 70,000 products with the carbon emissions associated with their
production and transportation.
So, get this, while there are tools that
can calculate emissions for various agricultural and other products, the challenge
for Just Salad was dialing in those measurements for each of the dozens of
ingredients on its menu and then for each menu item, Noonan said. The chain
worked with MBA students in New York University’s Stern School of Business to
do some of that “heavy lifting,” she said.
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Stern students also developed a Microsoft
Excel-based calculator for the chain to measure carbon emissions for
ingredients it adds down the line. The results of the process could
affect Just Salad’s menu going forward, Noonan said. For instance, the
calculations showed the impact cheese and dairy can have on the overall
emissions of a salad, she said.
“We have definitely taken that to heart
and committed to sourcing, for example, a plant-based cheese in the next couple
of years,” she said.
“For this to become a standardized thing,
we have to think about uniformity across calculations,” Noonan said—a set of
agreed-upon boundaries for how carbon emissions are measured. That will
require collaboration, funding and likely policy support, she said.
For now, Just Salad sees itself as
setting an example for how the industry can reduce its impact on the
environment.
“The more challenging and exciting part
is contributing to a social shift where people do really start thinking about
budgeting their carbon in the way they think about budgeting calories, money,
steps on their iPhone,” she said. So,
what do you think?
Success does
leave clues. One clue that time and time again continues to resurface is “the
consumer is dynamic not static”. Regular
readers of this blog know that is the common refrain of Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice
Solutions®. Our Grocerant Guru® can help your
company 253-759-7869.
