Packaging
The packaging of the food and beverages you buy affects your company’s carbon footprint. Here’s a quick fact check.
Eliminating packaging material reduces the carbon footprint, especially when it comes to aluminum foil and other metals whose production requires large amounts of energy.
It is also advisable to favor larger containers that can be reused. A life cycle analysis for beer found that the production and transport of 1 liter of beer resulted in emissions of 20 g CO₂-eq if steel barrels are used, while recyclable bottles increase greenhouse gas emissions by a factor of 15 to 40 to 300 – 750 g CO₂-eq per liter.
In addition, food services can phase out single-packaged items, and prefer reusable packaging, dispenser systems, and forms of packaging that are recyclable or compostable.
Source: Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers.