Minimize Food Waste
We aim to eliminate waste before it’s generated through a holistic food management process that includes menu planning, customer and portion forecasting, perfect purchasing, consumer engagement tools, waste tracking, post-analysis and more.
Knowing that what gets measured gets managed, all our foodservice locations are tracking food waste using a variety of methods, including hundreds of our largest accounts that have transitioned to a technology-based solution for tracking waste. Tracking waste enables better decisions about what to purchase and how much to prepare.
Feeding our communities
Although our goal is always to eliminate food waste before it is generated, there may still be instances when our operations have excess safe, unserved food available. Our food donation program provides this food to hunger relief agencies. We donate thousands of pounds of food each year to non-profit organizations, which helps feed people in our communities and keeps surplus prepared food out of landfills.
Aramark is a U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champion and we signed the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment. In addition, Aramark has been a member of the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, an industry collaboration focused on reducing waste and finding ways to donate or recycle unavoidable food waste, for nearly a decade.
Source Sustainably
Aramark’s purchasing decisions make a considerable impact on people, animals, and the environment. Our efforts focus on adopting environmentally sustainable, ethical, and inclusive sourcing practices throughout our supply chain, benefiting our local and global economies, the communities we serve, and the planet. Our long-standing commitment is demonstrated through our priorities and the progress we've made over the years.
At Aramark, we believe preventing deforestation is imperative to the wellbeing of our global community, as indicated through our No-Deforestation Policy (part of our Sustainable Sourcing Policy). Converting tropical forests for agricultural products such as palm oil, soy, beef, and paper (timber) is a major contributor to climate change and reduced biodiversity.
Since 2020, we ensured that the soy used in all our contracted soy oils, as well as soy and palm oil used in our contracted margarines and shortenings, is sourced from regions with no deforestation risk. We also increased supplier engagement around beef sourcing; soy as feed for beef, pork, poultry and fish; general climate and forestry policies and procedures.
Our Animal Welfare Policy (part of our Sustainable Sourcing Policy) addresses the treatment of animals for egg, meat, and dairy products, incorporating guidance from leading animal welfare organizations.
While supply chain disruptions related to COVID-19 and avian flu have affected the status of our cage free egg progress, we continue to drive towards cage free egg shell, liquid, and processed egg products. We put particular focus on our global operations and purchases, with each region setting a plan towards our global cage-free egg goal by the end of 2025. We continue to report publicly through Global Coalition for Animal Welfare and Egg Track.
Aramark maintains our commitment to eliminate gestation crates from our supply chain and to work with supplier partners towards this goal. We are continuing our efforts towards transitioning to more humanely raised broiler chickens in the U.S., Canada and Europe including engaging our suppliers and the general market as well as participating in cross industry working groups.
Guided by our Sustainable Seafood Policy (part of our Sustainable Sourcing Policy), and our Supplier Code of Conduct we buy seafood from sources that maintain healthy marine life and ecosystems and respect seafood workers and communities throughout the supply chain. In addition to its applicability in the U.S., sustainable seafood programs are also underway in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
We also committed to prioritize New England seafood purchases of whitefish species that are local Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI) Responsible Harvest-designated species across our Higher Education, Healthcare, and Business Dining businesses.
The Coolfood Pledge
An additional step we have taken is related to our involvement in the Cool Food Meals program. Created by the World Resources Institute (WRI), the program aims to make climate action simple and delicious. By incorporating more CRM certified meals into our everyday menus, we hope to lower our carbon footprint and provide guests with the ability to do the same. Guests can now quickly identify Cool Food Meals with a special badge on all of our menus (online and in-café).
Source Ethically & Inclusively
Customers today want the bigger story behind the products and services we provide. Where does my food come from? Which businesses have their finger on the pulse of local market trends? Are we supporting local communities and economies?
Our goal is to increase our small and diverse spend to 25% throughout our U.S. supply chain by 2025. We've also made our supplier certification campaign a priority to ensure our small and diverse supplier base is aware of network and business resources available to them. Our partner in this endeavor, Certify My Company, a certified women-owned business enterprise (WBE) and a disabled-owned business enterprise (DOBE) — is assisting our self-classified diverse suppliers to obtain third-party diversity certifications.
We believe our supplier base should reflect the diversity of our employees, clients, and customers, which in turn helps drive overall satisfaction and growth. Local, small, and diverse suppliers have more insight into local market trends and can more authentically supply products and services that are culturally relevant for our consumers. Partnering with local, small, and diverse suppliers drives economic impact and supports our diversity and inclusion goals.
At Aramark, we define locally sourced as products that are grown, raised, caught, manufactured, or processed by a farm or an independently owned business located within 250 miles (400km) of the Aramark location. We strive to purchase products from small-scale community-based producers that are independently or cooperatively owned enterprises. In 2018, we launched Open Fields Reporting, the industry’s first analytics engine that allows frontline managers to report on local and sustainable purchases.
My Green Michigan
Michigan Medicine works with My Green Michigan to provide convenient and effective solutions to divert organic waste to composting, and turn your food scraps into soil.
Aramark’s vision for the future focuses on positively impacting people and the planet as we serve our client partners, employees and other stakeholders. See more.
