Calculating the carbon footprint of each meal
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A platform helps restaurants and food service providers calculate and report the carbon footprint of a dish
Spotted: According to research published by Nature, the global food industry is responsible for a third of total anthropogenic carbon emissions. Even simple changes in our daily food choices could have a big impact, but because meals contain so many different elements, it can be hard to understand the exact breakdown of their carbon footprint and choose the more sustainable option.
In order to make it easier for restaurants and food service providers to make sustainable changes in the meals they offer, Klimato has created an easy-to-use cloud-based web app that automatically takes into account all components of a meal – based on certified climate data – to provide a holistic breakdown of a dish’s environmental impact.
These scores can then be printed on a menu, and Klimato provides templates and tailorable climate labels to make these easy to incorporate with a company’s specific branding. With this information, everyone along a value chain can make more sustainable decisions – from those in charge of buying ingredients and chefs who curate the meals, to the customers who can choose to select a more climate-friendly dish.
The Klimato platform also offers a reporting function, allowing restaurants to calculate their total carbon emissions based on sales. With this information, companies can set realistic goals and track progress easily. And to help cut their carbon footprint further, restaurants may also offset emissions with Gold Standard-certified offsetting projects that Klimato has partnered with.
We all love to go out to eat, but the emissions of these meals can add up. Fortunately in the archive, Springwise has spotted many innovations looking to cut the carbon footprint of hospitality, including one platform that lets customers pay extra to offset the carbon of their meal and a restaurant that uses food waste to craft delicious new meals.
Written By: Matilda Cox