Sustainability’s role in your employee breakroom

By burchfood Other

If you’re in business today, odds are the issue of sustainability has surfaced in one form or another. Whether it’s what you make or how you make it, the products you consume or the way you consume them, sustainability is likely on your company’s radar, or will be soon. It’s also on your employees’ radars – especially younger ones.

In a recent poll, 73% of Millennials said they cared enough about sustainability to pay more for a sustainable product.* Compare that to 25% of Gen X-ers, 12% of Baby Boomers and 9% of Gen Z-ers, and you can see the escalating importance the current workforce places on environmentalism.

That same expectation trickles down to their employers. So not only will a growing number of your customers and partners expect sustainability from your business – your employees will as well. In fact, 62% of younger workers say they’re willing to take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible employer. In a climate of intense recruitment/retention competition, those are numbers worth paying attention to.

So how does your breakroom factor in? Beyond the obvious opportunities for recycling programs and sustainable packaging usage, there’s another important factor that can impact the environment: Food waste.

Thirty-three percent of all food produced globally is wasted every year.* That’s about 1.3 billion tons of food – or enough to feed some 2 billion people around the world. Your breakroom is no exception. As products reach their expiration date, they’re disposed of.

Through our company-wide waste reduction program, Burch Food Services is committed to reducing wasted product in our breakrooms. One key way we’re making that happen is by ensuring the food and beverage options we’re stocking in your breakroom are the right ones – the ones your team wants to eat.

We do that by using a sophisticated automation system that identifies Market product purchasing trends, telling us which options are most popular in your breakroom and matching inventory to those preferences. Additionally, we take into account personal requests from employees in the breakroom, while rotating a variety of new and fresh options. All of it ensures we’re meeting your workforce’s needs while reducing waste and supporting sustainability goals.

Interested in learning more about sustainability and ways to enhance your breakroom? Contact us.