As the climate crisis intensifies and public health challenges grow, the food sector has a vital role in helping address these global issues.
At SSP, we are the food travel experts, a leading global player in designing, creating and operating restaurants, bars, cafés, lounges and convenience retail outlets in locations where people are on the move. Our purpose is to be the best part of the journey, and we are committed to bringing great food and hospitality to travellers worldwide.
There is growing evidence that diets rich in plants and wholegrains, with reduced reliance on animal proteins, offer a triple win for climate, nature and human health. The challenge lies in creating healthy and sustainable dishes that do not compromise taste and that connect with our travelling customers.
Chefs as agents of change
Chefs are powerful agents of change, shaping and responding to culinary trends. Our focus on health and wellness has grown steadily over the years. Now, as we integrate sustainability into our work, we are taking a holistic approach built around three areas.
1. Ingredient selection
Choosing the right ingredients is essential to creating recipes that are nutritionally balanced and have a lower environmental impact. We are working to prioritise complex, high-fibre carbohydrates such as wholegrains and reduce saturated fat, sugar and salt.
Drawing on our chefs’ understanding of local and seasonal ingredients, we bring our taste-of-place philosophy to life, highlighting regional specialities and supporting national growers and suppliers.
2. Menu design
We design our recipes and menus to meet a wide range of dietary needs and preferences, including lower-calorie, plant-based and non-dairy options. Since 2022, we have consistently exceeded our target for at least 30 percent of meals offered by our own brands globally to be plant based or vegetarian.
Updating our own-brand menus is one of our most effective tools for reducing Scope 3 food emissions and supporting our net-zero goals. We are shifting toward lower-emission options such as chicken instead of beef, developing more plant-forward dishes and working with suppliers to explore novel proteins.
Updating our own-brand menus is one of our most effective tools for reducing Scope 3 food emissions and supporting our net-zero goals. We are shifting toward lower-emission options such as chicken instead of beef, developing more plant-forward dishes and working with suppliers to explore novel proteins.
To support this, since 2023 our businesses in the UK and Ireland and the United Arab Emirates have partnered with Klimato to take a science-based, data-driven approach to measuring the climate impact of our recipes. Klimato calculates the carbon footprint of dishes alongside metrics for water use, nutrient pollution, land use and nutritional value, giving us a detailed view of each dish’s environmental and health profile.
In the UAE, Klimato is fully integrated into menu development. In the UK and Ireland, Klimato data informs new product development and is integrated into our commercial dashboard, allowing us to monitor carbon ratings alongside customer, profitability and operational KPIs.
This approach is already showing results. The autumn 2024 menu refresh for our UK and Ireland casual dining bars achieved an average 20 percent reduction in CO2e from the previous menu and 39 percent of the dishes were “low” or “very low” carbon according to Klimato’s intensity ratings. The range for our Soul + Grain brand in the UK was refined using Klimato insights, reducing the carbon footprint of food sold following the refresh by 15 percent while maintaining profitability.
3. Customer communications
Offering healthier and more sustainable options is not enough. Customers need clear and accessible information to make informed choices.
We support this across many of our brands with transparent menu descriptors, product labelling and point-of-sale communication. Our own labelling system, A Better Choice, uses simple icons to help customers identify product information quickly, such as plant-based and protein-rich foods. Digital ordering systems, including kiosks and checkouts, allow customers to browse menus, access nutritional details and filter options by dietary needs.
We are also trialling Klimato carbon labelling for selected brands. In a three-month pilot for two brands in the UAE, 60 percent of sales were for low-carbon dishes, and 65 percent of surveyed customers said they were likely to choose carbon-labelled dishes in future. In the UK, we introduced carbon labelling for Soul + Grain, supported by in-store communication. There, 88 percent of surveyed customers valued the transparency, and 83 percent said they would use this information to guide their choices.
Beyond labelling, we are exploring ways to nudge climate-smart decisions through menu design and descriptors. In a UK trial, simply changing the featured dishes led to a 30 percent shift in sales from high-carbon to low- and medium-carbon options.
Looking ahead
We are still in the early stages of this journey but remain committed to learning, testing and fostering innovation. As nutritional standards, climate science and food systems evolve, our approach will stay flexible and iterative.
By working closely with our stakeholders, we aim to help shape a more sustainable food travel sector that benefits both people and the planet.
