Bon Appétit Wins Top Award for Sustainable Purchasing

Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council recognizes decades of leadership in the sustainable purchasing movement

Palo Alto, CA (May 18, 2018) — Bon Appétit Management Company is proud to announce that we have been recognized by the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council (SPLC) for our decades of leadership in the sustainable purchasing movement, in which organizations are using their purchasing power to advance the long term health and vitality of society, economies, and the planet. Long recognized as a food service pioneer in socially and environmentally responsible sourcing policies, Bon Appétit received the SPLC’s Leadership Award for Overall Sustainable Purchasing Program, the council’s highest honor.

Case Study awardThe leadership award winners were selected by a prestigious panel of judges based on a case study that outlined their program’s resulting environmental, social, and/or economic benefits. Bon Appétit’s case study (download full PDF) documents the history, breadth, and depth of our commitments and quantifies their impact in five areas: local purchasing, appropriate use of antibiotics in agriculture, sustainable seafood, the food–climate change connection (including to fighting food waste), and humanely raised meat and eggs.

For example, the case study details how Bon Appétit defined and launched the groundbreaking Farm to Fork program in 1999, surpassed 1,000 registered Farm to Fork vendors and added a midsize Farm to Fork category in 2011, launched the related Fish to Fork program in 2011, and the Locally Crafted program in 2014. As of March 2018, Bon Appétit had 1,394 registered Farm to Fork vendors and 159 Locally Crafted vendors, and during fiscal 2017 spent $45.2 million on Farm to Fork purchases companywide.

Wooden award block“The credit for this award goes not only to our purchasing team, who have worked hard to identify and secure ethical sources for us as a company, but also to our 18,000 employees,” said CEO and cofounder Fedele Bauccio. “It is their commitment and passion to uphold our standards that is truly what sets us apart as a company.”

SPLC’s Leadership Awards recognize organizations that have demonstrated or actively supported the kind of leadership envisioned in the SPLC’s Principles for Leadership in Sustainable Purchasing. The Principles state that an organization demonstrates leadership in sustainable purchasing through:

  • Understanding the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing.
  • Taking responsibility for the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing by committing to an action plan.
  • Delivering on its commitment to improve the environmental, social, and economic impacts of its purchasing.
  • Actively promoting internal and external innovation that advances a positive future.
  • Soliciting and disclosing information that supports a marketplace of innovation.

“The winners of these awards have each demonstrated their commitment to leadership in sustainable purchasing,” says SPLC CEO Sam Hummel. “Collectively, they focus the powerful purchasing influence of organizations — in public and private sectors alike — to advance a socially just, ecologically robust, and economically prosperous future. The winners of SPLC’s Leadership Awards exemplify, encourage, and support a constructive cycle of innovation that will define the global marketplace of tomorrow.”

 

About Bon Appétit Management Company

Bon Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company operating more than 1,000 cafés in 33 states for corporations, universities, and museums — among them Google, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Art Institute of Chicago — as well as more than a dozen public restaurants, including San Francisco Chronicle Top 100 restaurant The Commissary. Bon Appétit chefs cook from scratch, including sauces, stocks, and soups. The Palo Alto–based food service company is a recognized industry leader in environmentally and socially responsible practices, with awards from organizations including the James Beard Foundation, International Association of Culinary Professionals, Chefs Collaborative, Natural Resources Defense Council, Seafood Choices Alliance, and The Humane Society of the United States.

Contact: Bonnie Powell, [email protected], (650) 798-8022

 

About the Council:

Founded in 2013, the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council convenes buyers, suppliers, and public interest advocates to develop programs that simplify and standardize sustainable purchasing efforts by large organizations. The Council has quickly attracted, from a wide variety of sectors and regions, more than 180 members with over $200 billion in collective purchasing power. In 2015, SPLC released Guidance for Leadership in Sustainable Purchasing v1.0, which has been called the “most comprehensive literature to date” on sustainable purchasing. Hundreds of organizations are now using SPLC’s Guidance, resources, and online community of practice to create strategic sustainable purchasing programs, or enhance existing ones.

About the Awards:                  www.sustainablepurchasing.org/awards

About the Principles:               http://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/principles

About the Guidance:               https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/guidance

About SPLC’s members:          https://www.sustainablepurchasing.org/members