Top tips for climate-friendly cooking

What we choose to eat can have a big impact on the planet.  All food generates carbon emissions while it is grown, sourced, prepared and cooked.  The level of emissions can vary depending on the choices made at each point of the journey. As a responsible food services provider, we are always trying to reduce the environmental impact of the meals we serve.

Two years ago, Sodexo Chef Oscar Jonasson and his kitchen team at Restaurant Bjorken in Uppsala, Sweden, began reducing their carbon dioxide equivalent impact through recipe development, planning and purchasing. Oscar Jonasson is setting a great example, and you can get inspired by some of the inspirational actions he and his team carried out below.

Saving the planet in the kitchen

Here are some of his tips for climate friendly cooking at home:

1. Educate yourself: Learn which ingredients are good and bad for the climate.
2. Go plant-based: Serve meals that are completely plant-based (vegan)to have a greater climate impact.
3. Cut down: Be conscious of serving meat and reduce the frequency of this.
4. Diversify: Use multiple protein sources to replace some meat with lentils, beans and peas.
5. Avoid rice: the climate impact of rice is 30 times higher than potatoes, pasta and bread.
6. Switch seasoning: Create an umami taste by changing some of the salt to soy.
7. Replace butter: Use mashes such as chickpea mayonnaise, hummus or pea-based guacamole instead of butter.
8. Re-invent classics: If you are cooking for sceptical guests, try preparing vegan versions of popular foods such as burgers, tacos and fried dishes.

Our chefs lead the way

In our restaurants our chefs have been going even further to reduce the carbon impact of our meals with steps such as:

1. Setting tough climate-smart goals and compare ourselves with others.

1. Engaging and educating clients and guests by explaining climate-smart meals and why they’re important. By explaining the climate footprint of each dish, we allow them to make conscious choices.

Across Sodexo, we are committed to offering 33% plant-based dishes in our menus globally by 2025. Find out more about the steps we are taking here… sustainable eating