Today, most kitchen operators in public institutions and large companies are both required to and motivated to make sustainable choices in food procurement. However, the process of defining and prioritising sustainability metrics is difficult territory for many. There is a risk of choosing a focus area or a metric that might be criticised as greenwashing or of overlooking essential concerns when trying to simplify the approach to sustainable sourcing. Many kitchens struggle with this.
There is a need for better guidance for kitchens on how to define and navigate sustainability in the context of their procurement. An initiative to define a holistic framework with a set number of indicators, including organic share, plant-animal share, seasonality and responsible production could alleviate this uncertainty. Such an initiative would not only help kitchens maximise the impact of their sustainability efforts, it would also be a tool to push for transparency in supply chains. This, in turn, could help minimise greenwashing. An important goal in this effort is to avoid a single-minded focus on one metric, for instance carbon footprint, while ignoring other essential concerns which may make well-intentioned actions unbalanced – even unsustainable.
For this purpose, a methodology must be developed to ensure validity within each indicator. Kitchens using such a framework would set individual goals within each indicator. The framework should be developed in such a way as to be compatible with SBTi, ESG and other international standards that a caterer may wish to or be required to comply with. Relevant stakeholder groups should be involved in defining indicators and a group of kitchens should be involved in a test phase to ensure the indicators are actionable in the context of running a professional kitchen. Some pioneering efforts to meet this need are already getting off the ground.