Foodservice forum: ESG

Elizabeth Histed
Head of PR and communications, BaxterStorey
At BaxterStorey, environmental, social and governance (ESG) isn’t a standalone initiative – it’s part of who we are and how we do business. Guided by our People, Planet, Purpose ethos, it shapes the food we serve, ingredients we source and partnerships we build. Our focus is to make ESG accessible and relevant to everyone across our business, helping our teams understand how their everyday actions contribute to meaningful change.

Food systems sit at the heart of this approach. From responsible sourcing to reducing food waste, we know hospitality plays an important role in building a more sustainable food future. For our teams, this means turning strategy into action, through practical decisions.

Often, it’s the small moments that make the biggest difference – rethinking how ingredients are used, wasting less or creating plant-forward dishes. For example, we have pledged to double volume sales of bean products by 2028, in support of the Food Foundation’s Bang in Some Beans campaign. This has encouraged our chefs to get creative in getting more beans and pulses on the plate, experimenting with different varieties and cooking methods in simple ways that are good for both people and planet.

Education is equally important. In partnership with the Association for Nutrition, we have developed a bespoke sustainable nutrition training course designed for all team members. The programme explores sustainable food systems, nutrition and responsible menu development, with chefs given practical tools to create dishes that champion our ‘five Cs’: craft, creativity, community, carbon and cheer.

ESG requires alignment across the organisation. From our learning and development teams to our chefs, procurement and leadership, everyone champions the same principles. This shared focus ensures ESG moves beyond strategy, and becomes something our teams can connect with and bring to life through the choices they make every day.

Our sustainability strategy, Second Nature, delivered as part of the wider WSH Group, brings together both social and environmental commitments through a performance-driven approach. Partnerships are central to strengthening our approach. Collaborating with organisations such as Women in Hospitality, Travel and Leisure, the Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals, and the Soil Association allows us to share best practice and strengthen our commitments.

Internally, we use comms channels from podcasts, videography, newsletters, town halls and in-person events such as regional huddles and our UK Chef Expo to create opportunities for teams to engage with our goals. Our 360 feedback approach shapes our policies and initiatives, helping us create and achieve a more inclusive and supportive workplace.

Ultimately, ESG is making responsible practices part of everyday decision-making. By empowering our teams with knowledge and practical tools, sustainability is not just an ambition, but a culture that touches our clients, teams, customers and wider communities.

Sam Hurst
Chief executive officer, Grazing
For us, ESG is less about campaigns or marketing and more about embedding the right behaviours into the everyday decisions that shape how the business operates. There’s an old saying: don’t tell me you’re funny, tell me a joke. We take a similar approach to ESG. Rather than making a big marketing fanfare about sustainability, we focus on making sure it genuinely guides how we run the business – from sourcing and logistics to energy use and transport.

When ESG is embedded properly, it becomes visible through the way a business behaves. Our teams see it in the decisions we make and the systems we build, rather than it existing as a separate initiative sitting alongside the day job.

Some of those practices have been in place for a long time. For example, we have only ever, since 2007, purchased electricity from 100% renewable sources. We use zero-emissions electric cargo bikes for 90% of our deliveries in London, and we use green fuels where vehicles are still required, helping reduce emissions and congestion in the communities we serve.

Sustainability is also reflected in the way we source and cook food. There is a relentless focus on using seasonal and British sourced produce – prioritising local wherever possible, avoiding out-of-season fruit and vegetables and never using airfreighted goods.

Waste reduction is another area where operational decisions make a difference. Our central production unit operates a zero-to-landfill policy, with food waste being sent for biofuel production or anaerobic digestion. Across our sites, surplus food is redistributed to people in local communities who need it through our long-standing partnership with Olio.

We also try to make positive choices when it comes to the partners we work with. This includes our coffee partnerships with social enterprises Redemption Roasters and Change Please. They combine great coffee with a meaningful social mission, creating employment, training opportunities and long-term support for people facing significant barriers.

For us, promoting ESG means ensuring it is built into the fabric of the business. When sustainability and social responsibility guide everyday decisions – from sourcing ingredients to choosing partners and managing waste – they naturally become part of the culture. That’s when ESG has the greatest impact: not as a standalone initiative, but as a consistent way of operating that shapes the choices we make every day.

James Carr
Head of safety and ESG, Houston & Hawkes
ESG only becomes meaningful when everyone is part of the journey. For us, there’s no single initiative or policy. It is all about helping teams understand what good looks like through a combination of communication, education and hands-on practice, giving them the confidence to act on it.

A good example is the masterclasses we run with our chefs. Last year, we held one focused on fish, looking at species we wouldn’t ordinarily use but that are more sustainable. Instead of defaulting to cod or haddock, we explored different options and talked about why those choices matter. Sessions like that are practical and hands-on, helping chefs connect sustainability with the decisions they make in the kitchen every day.

As a certified B Corp, we also host B Corp-themed events. These sessions create space to discuss our carbon footprint, what we are doing as a company and some of the challenges ahead. Keeping that conversation open helps teams to understand how their role fits into the bigger picture.

Communication is another important part of the approach. Each quarter we produce an ESG newsletter called The Dish on Doing Good, which shares updates from across the business. It highlights the positive things teams are doing, and also gives sites ideas that they can take forward with clients. For example, we partner with Angry Monk, a business-to-business market that supplies us with surplus or ‘wonky’ fruit and vegetables that would ordinarily be discarded.

The newsletter also features contributions from our chefs. A recent example was a fish stew recipe that was built entirely around unused ingredients from service, showing how perfectly good produce that would otherwise be wasted can be turned into something worthwhile.

Alongside that, I spend a lot of time out at sites speaking with managers and senior chefs. Those conversations are important because they allow us to coach people face-to-face and explain the thinking behind what we are trying to achieve.

Looking ahead, we are developing a formal ESG training module so that new starters understand what the business stands for and what B Corp and ESG mean in practice. The team is also building a network of sustainability champions across the business and supporting them with training opportunities. The aim is to develop that expertise internally and ensure that ESG is something the whole business feels part of.

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