REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EAT Club, the leading food delivery service for businesses that personalizes the way employees eat meals together, today announced its Zero Carbon Initiative, a new climate impact program to invest in renewable energy, support carbon recapture projects, and promote global sustainability. As a result of the initiative, EAT Club becomes the only food delivery service – consumer or business – to completely offset its own carbon footprint, including cooking, packaging, and delivering meals.
“We know that employer-provided food and shared mealtimes improve the culture of the workplace by building a sense of community. For us and many of our customers, that sense of community extends beyond the office, to the world we live in,” said Doug Leeds, CEO, EAT Club. “With the launch of our Zero Carbon Initiative, each one of the 25,000 meals EAT Club delivers every day will help to take a bite out of climate change.”
In addition to negating the carbon footprint of its operations, EAT Club will become the first known company in any industry to wholly offset the carbon footprint of all of its employees’ lives inside and outside of the workplace, doubling down on its efforts to promote a healthy planet. “By scaling our investment to cover the lives of our amazing team, we are able to extend our commitment to the environment as well as reflect the values held by our employees. We hope this unprecedented step can help serve as a model to other companies looking to increase their commitment to global sustainability and positive employee culture.”
EAT Club is partnering with leading environmental sustainability consulting firm 3Degrees to build and implement its custom renewable energy and carbon offset program. Together the organizations have designed a program that matches all of EAT Club’s electricity usage with renewable energy generation and relies on carbon offsets. This means that emission reductions from the program would not have been achieved without the specific funding and support from EAT Club.
EAT Club plans to implement a number of other environmental programs across the organization in addition to its Zero Carbon Initiative, including making its packaging recyclable or compostable, offering reusable utensil packs to customers at cost, funding and support for landfill recapture programs, and a continued focus on reducing overall food waste.
Global food waste is estimated to be over 1.3 billion tons annually, and 30-40% of the total overall food supply in the United States1. Food waste reduction continues to be a leading reason companies choose EAT Club, because when employees order individual meals rather than buffet-style catering, food waste can be significantly reduced.
Great companies know that providing food as a benefit increases employee collaboration, productivity, and workplace culture. But corporate cafeterias are expensive and traditional catering often results in long lines, frustration with food options, and waste. With EAT Club, employees have the power to choose their meals each day, from a mobile app featuring a curated menu of over 100 different dishes a week, satisfying all tastes and dietary restrictions.
To view a video on EAT Club’s Zero Carbon Initiative, visit: https://www.eatclub.com/#carbon-neutral
About EAT Club
Inspired by the Dabbawala delivery system of India and the bento-box office delivery model in Japan, EAT Club was founded with a hunger to solve the office meal problem in the US. EAT Club applies sophisticated technology and logistics solutions to power a new model, making it easy for businesses to offer individualized office meal experiences that suit everyone’s palate, at scale. EAT Club leverages a massive food supply network, including professional chefs and a large selection of meal options, to serve every employee’s specific cravings while meeting the needs of today’s businesses. EAT Club has served over 17 million meals to employees – now averaging 25,000 meals each day – and is trusted by Facebook, Postmates, and nearly 1,000 other great companies in the Bay Area and LA. For more on EAT Club, visit: eatclub.com.
Methodology
To determine the strategy and resource allocation to support its Zero Carbon initiative, EAT Club leveraged guidelines and data from the Environmental Protection Agency and The World Bank. EAT Club considered the emissions and resource use of its business operations, as well as the energy usage and emissions associated with each EAT Club full-time equivalent employee throughout the year, and implemented a program to completely offset both.
1 US Department of Agriculture