Catering giant sets 2020 targets for 100% ethically sourced products and to source responsible palm oil
UK contract caterer Compass has committed to us 100% cage-free eggs by 2025, according to its latest corporate responsibility report. The company, which serves more than 1 million meals a day and operates in 50 countries, has also set 2020 targets for ensuring all tea, coffee and hot chocolate is ethically sourced and reducing food waste by 10% compared to 2016.
Compass’s commitment to cage-free eggs comes after last week’s Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare report, (see Sainsbury's slips on animal welfare) which showed that Compass had moved down a tier from tier 3 (established but work to be done) to tier 4 (making progress on implementation).
It has made better progress on food waste, and has been working with UK-based food waste technology firm Winnow. In pilot projects where all food waste was weighed and logged so that chefs could make changes in practice on a daily basis, food waste was typically halved. This year the system will be rolled out to 500 sites across the country, the report says. Compass also sends surplus food that is within date to FareShare, a food charity that redistributes it to vulnerable groups.
The company has also made strides on tackling packaging waste, working to move paper and plastic disposables up the waste hierarchy. “In the last year, our focus has been on reducing the number of paper cups our consumers take from us. We’ve signed up to the industry-wide Paper Cup Manifesto which aims to increase recovery and recycling rates. We’ve also partnered with Simply Cups, the UK’s only paper cup collection and recycling scheme, which collects, shreds and recycles our paper cups into new products like pens, pencils and notebooks.”
On sourcing, besides the ethical sourcing commitment, Compass commits to publish a human rights plan this year and tackle modern slavery risks by auditing 100% of its high risk supplier sites by the end of 2018. It plans to map its soy supply chain and source certified sustainable palm oil by the end of this year.
Dennis Hogan, managing director of Compass Group UK & Ireland said: “We’re committed to playing our part in creating a sustainable future and making a positive social impact. While we’ve already accomplished a great deal, we recognise there’s still more we can undertake to ensure we’re a truly sustainable business.”
Compass last year appointed a new head of corporate responsibility, Duncan Gray, who will oversee the implementation of the commitments.