FirstCarbon Solutions and Compass Group Launch Carbon FOODprint Toolkit to Redefine Sustainability within Foodservice Operations

IRVINE, Calif. and CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 27, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstCarbon Solutions, a pioneer and industry leader in environmental sustainability business solutions, and Compass Group, the world's leading food and support services company, today announced the launch of the software tool being used to support Compass Group's Carbon FOODprint™ toolkit.  This unique, web-based tool, powered by FirstCarbon Solutions, is designed to help Compass Group's food operations staff lower their environmental impact and operational costs. Early Carbon FOODprint adopters to date include well-known companies, such as SAP, and colleges, including Auburn University and Green Mountain College.

An easy-to-use toolkit, Carbon FOODprint allows chefs and managers to create customized strategies to reduce their operations' carbon footprints by decreasing waste disposal, and energy and water use. Foodservice managers can make up to 185 strategic choices four key areas, including menu engineering, kitchen services, site equipment and facilities. Developed by FirstCarbon Solutions and hosted as part of its Sustainability Workbench platform, the web-based software application is an integral part of the Carbon FOODprint toolkit.  This online technology allows cafes to benchmark and measure the improvements made throughout the cafe, which can be shared with clients for annual reports, sustainability indexes, and disclosure to public programs such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP).

To develop the strategic planning portion of the Carbon FOODprint toolkit, Compass Group partnered with key players who could provide specific contributions in their area of expertise, such as the Green Restaurant Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Food Service Technology Center (supported by Pacific Gas & Electric). In "Phase 2" of this project, Compass Group teamed with FirstCarbon Solutions, to enhance the toolkit with sustainability metrics in a robust and user-friendly software platform, with cutting-edge dashboard applications for food service industry clients.

Marc Zammit, Vice President of Sustainability Initiatives at Compass Group, said the web-based tool was created in response to his clients' growing interest in having a strategic planning tool to measure, manage, and lower their operation costs and food service carbon footprint.

"With Carbon FOODprint, we now have an opportunity to provide our clients with cost effective solutions to lower the environmental impact of their food services," Zammit said.  "Commercial food service is a resource intense operation, and our onsite teams will use this scalable toolkit to make their operation more sustainable by minimizing carbon impact, while at the same time implementing best practices that lower operational costs in the areas of menuing, energy, water and waste. Supported by FirstCarbon Solutions software, managers will now have the information they need to make the best choices for their business, their clients and the environment."

As part of the design and collaboration with Compass Group, FirstCarbon Solutions collected thousands of pieces of data on the production, packaging, and transport of individually purchased food items, serving materials, and cleaning chemicals required to manage a foodservice operation "from cradle to customer." The Toolkit couples this information with site-specific operational data from individual cafes to provide up-to-date dashboards on the carbon, energy, water, and wastes associated with all aspect of a food service operation (facilities, kitchen operations, kitchen services, and menu engineering).

"Compass Group's Carbon FOODprint proves the point that sustainability and profitability are not mutually exclusive," said Robert Francisco, President, FirstCarbon Solutions. "With this innovative technology developed by FirstCarbon Solutions, Compass Group will help redefine sustainability within foodservice operations by providing cafes unprecedented visibility into the impact their operations have on the environment and helping teams create behavioral changes that will have long-term impacts and improvements."

Chet Chaffee, FirstCarbon Solutions Director of Supply Chain and Life Cycle Assessment added, "The software platform that FirstCarbon Solutions Group developed in support of the Carbon FOODprint toolkit benchmarks the carbon, energy, water and waste footprints of each participating unit, and provides insights on where to make changes to maximize sustainable efficiencies across the operation. To my knowledge, such a comprehensive, systematic and technically sound program, that considers all these aspects of food operations, has never been tackled before."

Carbon FOODprint toolkit is currently generally available to all 9,900 Compass Group cafes in the United States.

About Compass Group, North America
Based in Charlotte NC, Compass Group North America is the leading foodservice management and support services company with $12 billion USD (£7.5 billion) in revenues in 2012. With over 500,000 associates worldwide, its parent company, UK-based Compass Group PLC had revenues of £16.9 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012.

About FirstCarbon Solutions
FirstCarbon Solutions advances sustainable practices around the world and helps organizations responsibly grow and operate their businesses. Seamlessly delivering fully integrated, cost-effective consulting, data management and software solutions, FirstCarbon Solutions helps clients save time, reduce costs, optimize resource use, and drive operational efficiencies in a world where sustainability matters. With more than 30 years of environmental and sustainability consulting experience, FirstCarbon Solutions has offices throughout Asia, Europe, Australia and North America to ensure we meet our clients' ever-evolving environmental and compliance needs in energy, air and carbon management; environmental assessments and planning; supply and life cycle assessments; permitting and compliance; software and data processing. For more information, visit www.firstcarbonsolutions.com.  

SOURCE FirstCarbon Solutions