Terra Slaybaugh BM Caterers is collaborating with nutritional software company Nutritics’ sustainability consultancy arm to pilot a new sustainability awareness educational programme in the United Kingdom.
BM introduced ‘Knowledge Labs’ to develop weekly educational briefs for its managers to deliver to their teams as part of their usual team briefing sessions and, as a result, has seen a marked improvement in teams’ understanding of sustainability.
Since the workshops, there has been a 56% increase in awareness of sustainability and its importance to our planet among BM team members.
In addition, awareness of BM’s sustainability policy increased by 18%, while 78% of those who took part in the training stated that it was valuable.
The business has also seen a marked improvement in employees reducing water and energy usage, paper and packaging recycling, food waste reduction, and compost bin usage, and as a result will be rolling out the programme across the wider business in September.
Knowledge Labs delivered weekly sessions with managers to give them the tools to themselves deliver a 10-minute education brief each week.
Over a 12-week period, the trainers delivered the briefs to 70 team members across six sites (approximately 10% of BM’s workforce) about key topics including carbon and water footprints, climate change, and food sustainability, as well as food waste, energy, greenwashing and biodiversity.
After each brief, teams were tasked with an activity such as a quiz to gauge their level of understanding, carrying out a sustainability-focused behaviour, or reducing the carbon footprint of a dish or meal.
Nutrition manager Charlotte Newman, says: “Since rolling carbon labelling out into our restaurants last year, we wanted to continue our sustainability journey by providing further education and support to our teams so they could gain a better understanding around sustainability and what we can do as a business to continue to improve.
“Employee buy-in to our sustainability strategy will be vital to achieving our goals by educating staff on sustainability issues, demonstrating the invaluable role they play, and empowering them to make a difference.”
For any sustainability strategy to work, it’s crucial to get your teams engaged so they understand why it’s important
Elbha Purcell, Director of Knowledge Labs at Nutritics, adds: “For any sustainability strategy to work, it’s crucial to get your teams engaged so they understand why it’s important, and how they can play their part, and these results speak for themselves. Our mission is to continue to be a trusted partner to our customers by working collaboratively with them, and we look forward to continuing to work with BM as they progress their food-related sustainability, compliance and wellbeing strategies.
The training is part of BM’s commitment to reducing its carbon footprint this year by 5% and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest.
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