ESG performance

Environmental sustainability

As a food services business, we recognise our responsibility to evaluate our practices and create sustainable products while minimising waste and resource consumption.

Our Environmental and Climate Change Policy outlines our commitment to continually reducing our environmental footprint by incorporating sustainable practices. We have initiatives to limit air pollution, utilise more environmentally friendly packaging, invest in renewable energy sources, and reduce water and energy consumption. We track our environmental sustainability performance against the following areas:

  • Carbon footprint
  • Energy consumption
  • Water usage efficiency
  • Waste management
  • Sustainable sourcing
  • Environmentally friendly packaging

Since the policy was operationalised in 2022, we have made notable progress against our environmental objectives. Our biggest environmental opportunities lie in lowering energy consumption through energy efficiency initiatives and renewable energy, and reducing our water usage through water recycling and recovery initiatives. We have a Group-wide utilities savings awareness programme to encourage employees to adopt environmentally responsible practices.

Our environmental focus areas

Brands

  • Maintaining the use of environmentally friendly packaging.
  • Offering fully biodegradable and compostable take away coffee cups.
  • All brand packaging ranges are 100% recyclable.
  • Reduction in food waste through portion control and made-to-order practices in our restaurants.
  • Responsible reuse or redistribution of food through the donation of excess food products.

Manufacturing

  • Investigating alternative cleaner fuel and energy options (with lower GHG emission factors), including planned renewable energy projects.
  • Enhancing plant efficiencies to produce more units per hour of plant time.
  • Efficient refrigeration processes to reduce electricity usage.
  • Efficient water usage and effluent management pursued against a target for continuous improvement.
  • Cultivating potatoes closer to the Lamberts Bay Foods processing plant, reducing travel emissions.
  • New plant design focused on responsible consumption.
  • Responsible sourcing of sustainable food products for processing.
  • Maximising recycling opportunities for our general waste.
  • Responsible re-use or redistribution of food through the donation of excess food products.

Logistics

  • Investigating alternative cleaner fuel and energy options (with lower GHG emission factors), including planned renewable energy projects.
  • Optimising transport efficiencies in our Logistics fleet.
  • Better route planning and reduction in the number of trips.
  • Close monitoring and evaluation of new generators, as well as monitoring electricity usage by refrigerators.
  • Responsible redistribution of near-expiry date stock to identified non-profit organisations.
  • Use of high-quality refrigerants to reduce electricity consumption.

Retail

  • Controls in place to donate unsold products to non-profit organisations before they expire.
VIEW OUR ESG PERFORMANCE IN THE 2025 INTEGRATED REPORT