News & insights / Case studies / 21.01.25

Reduce Your Footprint: Restaurant Associates

The long-term focus at Restaurant Associates includes minimising food waste, limiting the environmental impact of their supply chain and being transparent about the origins of ingredients. “We are deeply passionate about doing the right thing,” says Gavin Gooddy, Marketing, Brand and Communications Director. “This means making business choices that are not only right for our guests but also for the planet.”

A central focus is reducing their carbon footprint, with a comprehensive Roadmap to Net Zero in place — validated by the Science-Based Targets initiative — to guide Restaurant Associates towards achieving ambitious targets: a reduction in carbon emissions of at least 55% by 2025 and at least 65% across their operations and value chain by 2030, working from a 2019 baseline.

How Restaurant Associates reduce their impact

Reducing emissions requires attention across multiple areas of the business. Recognising that food waste makes a significant global contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, Restaurant Associates has integrated strategies to reduce food waste into these plans.

“At one of our London-based clients, a private equity firm, we successfully achieved a remarkable 50% reduction in food waste,” says Gavin. “This significant milestone was made possible by integrating Winnow’s AI technology, which tracks and monitors food waste accurately.” They also work with Waste Knot to get surplus vegetables into chefs’ kitchens and with Olio to distribute surplus meals to domestic households/families in need. Gavin is particularly proud of their Food Waste Recipe Book, created with recipes designed to use leftover vegetable stalks and cuttings. “These recipes deliver health, wellbeing and sustainability benefits.”

Serving more plant-based proteins also plays a key role. “Our chefs and nutritionists have reformulated over 4,000 dishes to be 70% plant based and 30% animal protein. Our menus now include 25% plant-based recipes and 25% plant-forward dishes.” They bring their customers on board by promoting plant-based choices and partnering with Foodsteps to add carbon labelling to menus. “Each item is rated on its carbon footprint from A to E.”

Conscious that the supply chain is responsible for a large chunk of any hospitality business’ impact, the team also works with Soil Association Exchange to support farms transitioning to regenerative agricultural practices, and partners with Lake District Farmers to rear beef and lamb in less carbon intensive ways.

Gavin observes that the more data they can get, the easier this work becomes. “As legislation evolves, having access to more detailed and transparent CO₂ e data from all suppliers would be invaluable. Comprehensive insights into their extensive supply chains would allow us to identify opportunities for improvement and work more strategically to reduce our environmental footprint,” he says. “This level of collaboration and data sharing would empower businesses like ours to align more closely with sustainability goals and contribute meaningfully to broader environmental efforts.”

Saying goodbye to single use

One clear success story is their work with CauliBox, which provides re-usable food and drink packaging. Within a circular system, the packaging is used, tracked, returned and washed, eliminating single-use waste across their portfolio. The solution sees customers scan a QR code to use a CauliBox instead of a disposable container, and then return it within seven days. “One of our London clients is aiming to be disposable-free through a five-phase project — 100% crockery or CauliBox — and are on target to achieve it.”

This initiative has seen fantastic results to date. As Gavin shares:

42% of lunch dishes are now taken away in reusable Cauliboxes — with over 7,000 monthly borrows! — demonstrating a meaningful shift toward circular use.
Across the first three phases, 18,174 kg of CO₂ was saved and 61,744L waste prevented.
They’ve also saved 79,357 500ml plastic bottles, along with 65,381 single-use paper cups and lids.
Proving that sustainability can be financially beneficial, they saw an incredible £200,033 in annual cost savings across phases 1-5 of the project.

Taking up the carbon challenge

“One of our financial services clients has a big focus on ESG, including reducing carbon emissions, and challenged us to act,” says Gavin. Adding to the urgency was an increase in the popularity of ‘meals to go’, served in single-use packaging. “We created a three-pronged ‘Roadmap Towards Zero Disposables’, designed to deliver a circular economy in which we reduce, reuse and recycle.”

With a goal of removing 300,000 disposables from site, this Roadmap entailed:

education and workshops,
a hybrid system, with guests choosing between reusables and disposables, and
eradication, with all disposables replaced by reusables.

Reusable salad boxes and high-end reusable pizza boxes were also introduced, along with sustainable takeaway boxes. “Choosing the right boxes was crucial to gaining buy-in from guests who expect a high-end service,” says Gavin. “Pop-ups and give-aways by the supplier helped us to test opinions before we opted for stud emerald boxes. These replace paper packaging (which is not always recyclable) and are recycled after 1,000 uses rather than being incinerated. They even use less water when they’re being cleaned!”

Disposable water cups were replaced by reusable cups, with china cups introduced in coffee shops and disposable cutlery replaced by stainless steel. They handed out tote bags to reduce reliance on paper bags; back-of-house, they started using washable silicon tray covers instead of cling film.

The results of this initiative were impressive, saving 30,025kg of CO₂ per year and reducing waste by over 3.5 tonnes — all while saving a lot of money. “This client initially spent £7,474 every month on disposable products,” says Gavin. “By the end of the initiative, this monthly expense had dropped so significantly that it had become negligible. Once we quantified these savings and presented them to stakeholders, gaining client support became notably easier.”

Bringing clients and guests on board

Gavin says that achieving this buy-in is the biggest challenge faced by Restaurant Associates in reducing their footprint. “Our clients are always looking to reduce emissions without incurring high costs, while our guests expect premium service without compromise.” While making the financial case to clients has proved effective, the focus when it comes to guests is on education and engagement. “We’ve developed informational materials highlighting the environmental benefits of transitioning away from single-use plastics and introduced loyalty and reward schemes to encourage participation.”

Overall, Restaurant Associates’ work to reduce their footprint has an enormous impact, with 27 million pieces of single-use plastics removed from operations last year and a 50% reduction in food waste across the business. They’ve seen a 9.4% absolute reduction in emissions (despite significant net growth), a 25% reduction in carbon intense ingredients and 162,838 tCO₂e reduction in emissions attributed to food and drink purchases. “We’ve also donated 185,000 meals to charities this year, says Gavin, “and saved 31 tonnes of cling film!”

what’s next for Restaurant Associates?

In line with their Roadmap to Net Zero, key focuses for 2025 are:

switching from animal proteins, reducing red meat and promoting plant-forward and plant-based meals,
re-engineering menus and effectively reducing the CO₂ output of their dishes,
continuing to reduce food waste through the implementation of zero waste menus,
expanding their social promise commitments to include more social enterprises and community-based projects,
adopting greener modes of transport for their teams, and
continuing to provide further education on sustainable practices to guests and clients.

Food Made Good at Restaurant Associates

In 2024, Restaurant Associates took the Food Made Good Standard for the third time, achieving an incredibly high score of 90%. “Each iteration has required us to evolve with the times,” says Gavin. “The SRA demands a greater depth of detail in our business operations than ever before.”

He shares how the Standard supports their sustainability work. “The FMG Framework provides a structured approach to measure success and pinpoint areas for growth. Tracking our progress not only ensures that our efforts align with our sustainability roadmap but also strengthens our connection with both teams and clients.

“Its three pillars — Sourcing, Society and Environment — are straightforward yet impactful, enabling us to adopt a more deliberate and thoughtful approach. Moreover, the Framework serves as an invaluable educational tool for our teams and chefs, fostering a deeper understanding of sustainable practices across the business.

“Adopting a more evidence-based approach has fundamentally transformed our decision-making process. With access to reliable data, we are now able to make more informed choices about our partnerships and projects. This shift has enabled us to prioritise initiatives that drive meaningful, long-lasting positive change.

“By grounding our actions in data, we’ve also become more intentional in our sustainability efforts, ensuring that every step aligns with our overarching goals and contributes to a more sustainable future.”

Well done to the entire Restaurant Associates team on their ongoing dedication to building environmentally-friendly operations — we can’t wait to see where you go from here.

Learn more about Restaurant Associates on their website. For further insights into how hospitality businesses are reducing their footprint, sign up to our newsletter and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn!  