Business and Industry Foodservice Leadership Council - Live Conversation Recap
Sustainability, tactics to move toward that and the data needed to measure it dominated the Live Conversation of the IFMA Business & Industry Foodservice Leadership Council which took place on February 9. Moderated by IFMA’s Charlie McConnell, featured speakers included: Anna Bohbot, global food and beverage manager, LinkedIn; Bernadette Ventura, senior manager of workplace solutions, AmerisourceBergen; and Dan Cramer, senior workplace experience manager, CBRE @ Credit Suisse.
LinkedIn has 20,000 employees in 30 countries, with all food and beverage fully subsidized. AmerisourceBergen is a Fortune 10 company, with 50 distribution centers and four offices in the U.S. Credit Suisse has three administrative buildings in the U.S. with several free-standing business units.
In other words, these three large corporations feed a lot of people.
Bohbot is passionate about sustainability. She said, “We have a global commitment to sustainability, aligned to that of Microsoft. That includes zero waste by 2030. We work with the global team to reduce our carbon footprint, and that includes in the procurement of food.” Bohbot must do that while serving tasty, free meals and snacks. “We are competing against other tech companies in Silicon Valley for talent. Many employees say they join LinkedIn because of the food,” she added.
Cramer pointed out that Credit Suisse has a similar strategy and he is always making decisions to improve sustainability. “There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit,” he remarked. For instance, Credit Suisse does not permit suppliers to leave large amounts of shrink-wrap in the building. And the cafes only have reusable glasses and cups. Cramer noted that these touches help but sustainability is much broader. “We need to communicate our goals to the manufacturers and also learn what their goals are so we can all work together,” he pointed out.
Ventura reports directly to ESG leadership (Environmental Social Governance), demonstrating the importance of sustainability to AmerisourceBergen.
All three leaders stress that now is the time to set up data to measure sustainability efforts. “These goals are no longer way in the future,” said Bohbot. “Companies need to set up a baseline now so they can measure how they are doing. Vendors can help with that.”
Watch the full webinar recording
