“While we sit here considering the carbon impact of a knob on an oven, the UK government is burning our household waste with an impact greater than burning coal”.
There is a need for us to take leadership on sustainability where our govt. is not. This is why on 15th October, we hosted a forward-thinking event at our central London headquarters, bringing together key suppliers, distributors, installers, and manufacturers from across the commercial catering equipment industry to discuss our sustainability challenges.
Hosted by our Group Sustainability Manager, Alice Kilner, the first-of-its-kind event featured a guest presentation from our carbon calculation partner, Normative. After the presentation, Normative invited questions from the attendees, answering queries like “where on earth do we start on our scope 3 emissions?” and “how do we drive engagement on this subject with our suppliers?”. Normative shed some light on scopes 1-3 (and the benefit of entrusting your carbon calculation to a partner) and answered delegate’s questions.
This was followed by an update on our own Journey to Net Zero and then several open discussion sessions, sparking conversations about the sustainability challenges we all face. We created a safe, informal space where participants could share candidly, confident that the ideas exchanged would stay within the room. It was fantastic to see representatives from across the industry and supply chain come together to discuss such a critical topic, leaving brand rivalries at the door to connect with each other and wholeheartedly engage in the topic.
The discussions focused on how best to align sustainability goals across different international locations, the critical need to standardise the way companies report their sustainability efforts, how we can reach sustainability targets without forfeiting quality, waste management and plenty more besides. Attendees explored their challenges and asked questions to fill in their respective gaps, working together to find collaborative ways forward. One thing was clear—this is a conversation our industry needs.
We are not claiming we have all the answers. We are not saying that our suppliers need to. But, we are recognising the need for collaboration, transparency and simplicity. It was a day where there was no such thing as a silly question, and we were able to vent, reassure and inspire one another through our conversations.
As the day came to a close, it was clear that the appetite for collective progress and peer support is strong. Bolstered by the positive feedback we received from attendees, we are looking to make this event an annual occurrence, with the aim of tracking our shared progress, setting new goals, and addressing fresh challenges as they emerge.
As Alice said on the day, it’s all about starting the conversation. So, we hope this event has equipped attendees with valuable takeaways that they can implement within their own sustainability journeys and provided them with a much needed ‘sustainability support group’ to bounce ideas off. We thank everyone who attended and look forward to continuing these important discussions.
Thank you to our attendees for providing such brilliant feedback:
Wayne Bennett | MKN:
“Thank you for allowing us to attend and great to see Grattes leading the way on the distributor side of things, As mentioned others are talking about it but only to secure projects!
For me personally, it was very insightful and great to understand where others in the industry are on their journey which excites me further with what we will launch in the first quarter next year. Where others are getting excited about launching electric equipment, this is something that’s always been our lead for the last 30 years so we have this pretty mastered. It’s now time to break away from the ‘analogue’ and go digital for horizontal modular equipment, which with sustainability in mind this really will tick the boxes and allow you to measure and control everything!”
Tracey Southwell | Hobart:
“Congratulations and more importantly thank you for galvanising key leaders to focus on this important topic. I personally appreciate the organisation of this event and look forward to the next one. Alice smashed it, and [Mark Kendall wasn’t] too bad either.”
Malcom Harling | Williams:
“I have attended several sustainability events just recently and I have to say yesterday was the best. I think that we all learnt something, and the sharing of information was not restricted through fear of giving away any commercial advantage. We, like most are well down the line with Net Zero but still have a long way to go, and would be happy to attend any future events that you wish to hold.”
Adam Mason | CEDA:
“It was a really useful day for me – appreciate the invitation and happy to catch up over the next few weeks about a) hosting a future meeting at St Georges in June and b) having a session on the Business Day showing a Member’s JTNZ.”
Karl Nicholson | Halton:
“Firstly, Thank you for the invite and I found it a fantastic day. Alice presented sustainability to the whole room very well, it was great to see the interaction in the room.
I have already spoken highly about Gratte Brothers to the business today, we at Halton are all about sustainability and I would like to work in the future with yourselves on this.”
