Be More Sustainable at Work, Starting with Food
Whether you’re bringing your food from home or grabbing takeout to bring back to the office, there are things you can do to reduce your foodprint — the impact of your food on animals, planet and people. Here are our tips for a more sustainable work lunch. And if you’re working from home, many of these tips still apply!
Go Meatless at Lunch
Sometimes you barely have the time to shovel food into your mouth, much less worry about what it is or where it’s from. But lunch is likely the biggest meal you eat during the daytime and therefore the easiest place to make an impact. The best way to reduce your lunch foodprint is to eat less meat. It’ll go a long way towards reducing your environmental impact. The United Nations IPCC report says that the food system is a driver of climate change, and suggests we should be moving towards plant-based eating. You can cut down every day or try adopting Meatless Monday. Pack or buy lunches that put plants at the center.
Cut Your Food Waste at Work
Whether it’s leftovers from a restaurant meal, extra takeout or the scraps from your brown bag lunch, it’s tempting to leave excess food moldering in the office fridge — or in the garbage. But letting food head to the landfill is a waste of the resources used to grow that food, and the food will release methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) as it decomposes in the landfill. You can follow many of the same tips to cut food waste at work as at home: only order what you think you can eat, label your leftovers and set a reminder to eat them.
Start a Compost Program at Work
Sometimes, despite good intentions, food scraps are unavoidable. How to make sure they don’t end up in the landfill? Start an office composting program! It sounds like a big lift, but once you get it going, you’d be surprised how quickly it becomes part of the company culture. The easiest way to do it is to get some lidded plastic buckets that will fit in the communal freezer. Put up a sign that explains what can be composted. Then, once the buckets are full, take them to a nearby compost collection point and dump them or, take them to your own compost pile. Get a few like-minded colleagues to share the load. Hopefully, once your colleagues see how easy it is, they’ll set up their own compost collection at home.
Use Less Plastic and Fewer Disposable Products
Food packaging is terrible for our environment. At work, takeout lunch is public enemy number one. Nearly all takeout food comes with a side of single-use disposable items. There are food wrappers; boxes; plastic cutlery; drink containers with lids and straws; condiment packages; the gazillion napkins; and a plastic or paper bag to hold it all. Oof! Get in the habit of requesting that the restaurant leave these things out. If they include them anyway, give them back. You can also bring your own reusable containers to be filled up at your lunch spot, and some places may even give you a discount. Each straw or napkin or ketchup packet you refuse is one less ordered by the vendor — and one less in a landfill. It does make a difference!
Just because you’re bringing food from home doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Swap reusable sandwich wrappers for plastic baggies. Try reusable beeswax wrappers instead of aluminum foil. Trade plastic containers for glass or metal. Here are a lot more tips for cutting plastic out of your life.
Support Sustainable Restaurants and Caterers
Whether it’s you and a co-worker eating out for lunch, or the office hosting a catered in-house client meeting, get food from an establishment that thinks about their sourcing, their packaging, their food seasonality — or ideally, all three. Here are ways to tell if a restaurant is actually following sustainable practices.
Push your Workplace to Buy Sustainable Food-Related Products
Think about all the coffee, tea, milk, creamer, sugar, paper towels, paper plates and cups, plastic cutlery, dish soap, sponges and bottled water that your employer buys. Get in good with the person in charge of making those purchasing decisions and see if they can switch to more sustainable suppliers. For consumables like drinks and snacks, push for Organic or Fair Trade Certified. Encourage bulk purchasing, like a tub of sugar instead of a million tiny packets.
Worried about getting your company on board? We get it — you may not want to rock the boat. So here are some arguments to help you persuade the people in charge:
“Some of these changes will end up saving the company money.” For instance, buying reusable dishes, flatware, cups, cleaning supplies and hand towels may be a substantial investment up-front, but they will lower costs over time.
“Some of these changes will just be more expensive, but might boost morale.” Justify the cost by getting a group of like-minded employees to band together to ask for better products. Frame the asks around making employees happy and how leadership can use these changes as a way to keep up morale.
“Having sustainability goals can make your company look good.” There’s a reason big businesses have been chasing customers with corporate responsibility for years now. Data shows consumers prefer brands that are more sustainable — and these numbers will only keep rising, as Gen Z is proving to be the most environmentally conscious generation yet. Pitch company interest in sustainability as an additional way to find and retain customers.
Remember, you can always bring your own green items if your company won’t get with the program. Share these tips with your colleagues and start your own workplace food revolution today.
Things to Keep at Your Desk to Make Sustainability A Breeze
- Reusable flatware.
- Stainless steel cups, glasses or ceramic mugs for drinks.
- Cloth napkins and hand towels.
- Reusable baggies and containers for those inevitable leftovers.
- Oil and vinegar for salad dressing.
- Are you a juice or smoothie addict? Make your own at home: cut down on waste and save money in the long run.
Top photo by anaumenko /Adobe Stock.
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