Written evidence from Compass Group UK & Ireland

(CCE0084)
About Compass Group UK & Ireland
Compass Group UK & Ireland is the UK’s leading food and support services
provider, which operates in 6,000+ locations, to provide expert catering,
cleaning, and facilities management services to a range of clients and
sectors. In the UK and Ireland Compass employs tens of thousands of
talented people, providing food and support services to improve the health
and wellbeing of workers, school children, hospital patients, military and
visitors to the nation’s major sports and cultural events.

Background to Compass’ UK&I Climate Net Zero commitment

Food today comes with a high carbon price tag. If you add all food-
related emissions together (including livestock, farming,
deforestation and food waste) then what we eat and drink ranks
number one in the greatest causes of global warming, along with
energy supply*.

In May 2021, we became the first foodservice provider in the UK to make

the necessarily ambitious commitment of reaching Climate Net Zero by
2030 - across scopes 1,2 and 3. To help achieve this goal, Compass
created Our Climate Promise and Roadmap to Net Zero. Together they
exist to provide detail on the creation of strategies needed to support a
sustainable food system, including milestones we will champion this
decade.

To successfully embed credible climate action; inspiring collective agency

and ensuring the commercial rewiring needed to enable it, Compass has
committed to engage and act collaboratively; in an open and transparent
dialogue.

It recognises that every job must be understood as a climate job; so that

promoting, informing, and influencing behaviors across the business, at
scale, is a realistic objective.

Early in 2022, Compass Group UK & Ireland announced progress on this

journey, including:

 Received a commendation of best practice for Net Zero

targets, from the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
 Encouraged chefs to reformulate menus; creating low carbon
options that draw on local, seasonal and plant-based ingredients
and consciously look to reduce food waste. The success of this
approach was highlighted by our QEII Future of Food event
menu, which saw a reduction from 11.8kg of CO2e per portion
to 4.02kg of CO2e per portion (66%).
 Banned air freight for fresh fruit and vegetable produce.
 Appointed a Director for Delivery of Net Zero to lead this work,
supported by a wider sustainability team and created a dedicated
sustainability division within Foodbuy (Compass’ procurement
 division).
 Launched a milk pilot to support engagement with over 500 farmers;
dairy
representing 10% of Compass Group UK&I’s footprint.
 Launched an electric vehicle policy to reach 100% electric fleet
cars by 2024 at the latest.
 Partnered with Oxford University’s LEAP programme to introduce
eco-labelling.
 Removed around 142 million items of single-use plastics.
 Partnered with Incredible Edible to support its work with communities.
 Launched an apprenticeship programme alongside Marcus
Wareing, with a bespoke sustainability module.
 Catered and cleaned for COP26, with a clear food strategy,
footprinted menus and a commitment to using learnings as a
legacy for positive change.
 Engaged with hundreds of clients, stakeholders, suppliers and
employees to share ideas, knowledge and best practice.

Behavio
ur
change

Compass employees
To truly embed sustainability across Compass, we must win the hearts and
minds of our people who will implement change across our organisation –
every single person has a role to play and we are committed to
communicating our goals and strategies with them. As such, we are
creating a Net Zero hub, where information and education training
materials will be available to everyone.
Sustainability is a dedicated module as part of our ‘Forward with Marcus
Wareing’ culinary programme, as well as playing a role in our
apprenticeship schemes. In addition, we are now developing a net zero
toolkit, which every unit of the business will be given, prompting actions
and behavioural change.

We hope that by informing our employees about particularly visible and

emotive issues including food waste, water usage and single-use plastics,
our people, at every level, will feel increasingly motivated to adopt more
sustainable practices. We know from multiple bodies of research, that
change is most effective when a top-down, bottom-up approach is enacted
together.

Influencing clients, customers and suppliers

We act as a supplier to many organisations, in the private and public
sectors; forming part of their Scope 3 emissions. This sees us in a growing
number of ongoing dialogues – at various levels of maturity – to help
support and share best practice. Examples include, creating reduced
carbon menus, through our focus on seasonal and local sourcing, as well
as switching away from animal- based protein, to use more plant-based
options. In addition, we have commissioned the build of a tool to calculate
the environmental footprint of our catering operation at key pilot sites.
This will enable us to make informed changes at a localised, contract level,
prioritising factors based on impact.

We recognise the importance of a plate which balances nutritional criteria

and environmental impact and we are working on wider engagement
programmes that celebrate the benefits of food for body, mind and planet.
A tried and tested approach promoted by behavioural scientists is to
nudge people into making better choices, rather than dictate to them.
Fundamental to Compass’ success is the ability to embed the
understanding that a healthy, sustainable diet does not need to be
punitive. On the contrary. Our chefs are creating innovative, delicious
menus that offer choice and quality.

Trials of multi-variate eco-labelling are also underway in our business, via

the LEAP programme from Oxford University. Dishes are labelled A-E, to
highlight which meals have a higher (E) or lower (A) environmental impact.
Scoring is based on greenhouse gas emissions, water scarcity, water
pollution and biodiversity loss. Menus at COP26 were also carbon
footprinted and progressive work in this space continues across our sports
and leisure business.

Within our education sector, we have a programme of information sessions

and resources, accessible to our partners and the young people they work
with. These vary in content and include health, nutrition and sustainability
sessions. To reach a wider audience, our nutritionists have also created a
podcast: F.U.E.L (Fuelling Unique Everyday Lives) which shares short
factual soundbites on key topics.

Over 90% of Compass’ UKI emissions sit within Scope 3, underlining the
need for fundamental and systemic changes across the supply chain. To do
this, we are engaging with suppliers to better understand and support the
transition to sustainable working practices. Interim milestones, such as a
25% switch from animal to plant-based proteins by 2025, are included to
help drive measurable change.

Public procurement
We have catering and support service contracts across a number of central
government departments, with the MoD being the largest, however, we
also operate across the wider public sector with numerous contracts with
the NHS, in Education and across Local Authorities. Contracts within
Defence, Healthcare and Education settings are regulated in terms of Food
and Nutrition meal provision, however, aside from some elements of the
Government Buying Standards there is not a standard sustainability
framework to support best practice and consistency across all public
procurement.

In June 2021 the government published PPN 06/21 which instructed

central government departments to include, as part of their selection
criterion, a requirement for bidding suppliers to provide a Carbon
Reduction Plan confirming the supplier’s commitment to achieving Net
Zero by 2050 in the UK, and setting out the environmental management
measures that they have in place and which will be in effect and utilised
during the performance of the contract. This approach is helpful, but we
have yet to see any direction given to government commercial teams on
how to assess these plans to ensure a common approach is taken by all
government departments. We would also suggest, if not in place already,
that training, and tools are made available to ensure understanding of the
wider Net Zero programme.

Unfortunately, PPN 06/21 does not apply across the wider public sector and
we are now seeing local authorities, the NHS, Education Sector (Schools,
Colleges and Universities), as well as devolved governments taking their
own approach and in our view there should be the same approach taken
across both central government and the wider public sector.

If the UK wants to make the biggest impact overall to meet its carbon
reduction targets, it should lead from the front in terms of setting
standards and informing those involved in public sector procurement.
Having a clear set of guidelines would ensure set standards for
procurement teams and consistency for those tendering, it would also
provide clear ways for measurement of changes. If everyone is doing
things differently, we can’t measure success. We need clear guidance on
how to evaluate and report on the carbon reduction programmes, to
provide consistency of approach across the UK.

Government guidance for businesses

We have welcomed guidance from the government to date in terms of
mandates such as the Plastic Tax and Climate Change Levy. The
introduction of The National TOMs framework also provided our public
sector businesses with a basis to measure all aspects of social value.
Delivering social value is an integral part of our organisation and this gave
us clearer structure to enable us to enhance this work further - including
our environmental commitments. We recognise the Better Business Act and
its impact on profit, planet and people. We would support any future
mandates that have environmental benefits.

Conclusion
We are committed to openness and transparency and feel that successes
and best practice should be shared across the industry, with customers,
clients and suppliers, to make the most significant impact possible. Within
our sphere of influence, it is critical to create a culture of choice,
information and education. We would be happy to consult and share
information on government action within this area and welcome continued
support for our industry in addressing the urgent need for decarbonisation
and the increasing role we have in addressing biodiversity loss.

ENDS

*Drawdown. The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse

Global Warming. Paul Hawken. P37.