PHILADELPHIA–Aramark (NYSE: ARMK), the largest U.S.-based food service provider, announced today it is the first contract catering company in the U.S. to sign World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Cool Food Pledge. By signing the Pledge, Aramark is committing to drastically reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the food it serves in the U.S. by 25 percent by 2030.
Cutting carbon emissions is a critical component of the company’s sustainability plan, Be Well. Do Well., focused on positively impacting people and the planet. Today’s announcement supports Aramark’s efforts and furthers the company’s journey toward setting science-based targets, including its path to net zero emissions, since nearly half of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the food it purchases and serves.
“Partnering with WRI on the Cool Food Pledge will help us slash our food-related greenhouse gas emissions, while substantially expanding the availability of Cool Food Meals,” said Alan Horowitz, Vice President of Sustainability at Aramark. “This will make it easier for more of our guests to make climate-friendly and plant-forward meal choices, which according to our research, is what they increasingly want.”
In addition to signing the Cool Food Pledge, Aramark also announced it will drastically expand the availability of plant-forward, lower carbon footprint Cool Food Meals to all Higher Education, Workplace Experience, and Healthcare+ accounts in the United States in January 2023. Aramark became the first contract catering company to adopt WRI’s Cool Food Meals badge on its menus with a 10 university pilot program during the 2022 spring semester. Following the success of that program, Aramark is expanding availability of Cool Food Meals menu items to nearly 1,500 locations in the U.S., making it even more convenient for guests to make climate-friendly choices.
“Because of Aramark’s reach and profile, its commitment to cut food-related emissions and serve more low-carbon meals sends a big message to the industry and consumers that this is the future of climate action,” said Edwina Hughes, Head of Cool Food at World Resources Institute. “Climate change is the great challenge of our time. This announcement means huge numbers of Americans will be able to reduce their carbon footprint through what’s on their plate. That’s extremely encouraging because it’s the kind of scale that’s needed to reach global climate targets before it’s too late.”
To learn more about Aramark’s sustainability initiatives, visit www.aramark.com/sustainability.
About the Cool Food Pledge
World Resources Institute (WRI) has developed a peer-reviewed calculator and methodology for measuring the GHG emissions of an organization’s food purchases. This calculator provides a farm to fork insight of emissions as well as a carbon opportunity cost calculation of food procured. Added together, these numbers provide a total climate footprint for food procured against which to gauge and track progress.
About Aramark
Aramark (NYSE: ARMK) proudly serves the world’s leading educational institutions, Fortune 500 companies, world champion sports teams, prominent healthcare providers, iconic destinations and cultural attractions, and numerous municipalities in 19 countries around the world with food, facilities, and uniform services. Because our culture is rooted in service, our employees strive to do great things for each other, our partners, our communities, and our planet. Aramark ranked No. 1 In the Diversified Outsourcing Services Category on FORTUNE’s 2022 List of ‘World’s Most Admired Companies’ and has been named to DiversityInc’s “Top 50 Companies for Diversity” list, the Forbes list of “America’s Best Employers for Diversity,” the HRC’s “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality” and scored 100% on the Disability Equality Index. Learn more at www.aramark.com and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements reflect our current expectations as to future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. In this press release these statements include, but are not limited to, statements related to emissions reduction targets and initiatives, and reporting of progress on these targets and initiatives. In some cases forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “outlook,” “aim,” “anticipate,” “are or remain or continue to be confident,” “have confidence,” “estimate,” “expect,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “see,” “look to” and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative versions of such words. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may change at any time, and actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that we expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are set forth under the headings Item 1A “Risk Factors” and other sections of our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on November 23, 2021 as such factors may be updated from time to time in our other periodic filings with the SEC, which are accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and which may be obtained by contacting Aramark’s investor relations department via its website at www.aramark.com.
