Low Carbon Diet Day

In the years since Bon Appétit Management Company announced our Low Carbon Diet Program in 2007, food’s connection to climate change has become more common knowledge. At the same time, more and more people have become aware that cutting back on animal products through flexitarianism — whether Meatless Mondays or being “vegan before 6” — can be good for their health.

Perhaps even more Americans would be happy to forgo beef and dairy once in a while if they knew they were doing something good for the environment … and they didn’t have to give up flavor or their favorite dishes to do so!

Cows (like goats and sheep) are ruminant animals, which thanks to their digestive systems produce a lot of methane — a greenhouse gas that is 20 to 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide. Dishes made with beef or dairy of any kind are thus the highest carbon choices. If all Americans skipped meat and dairy just one day a week and replaced them with vegetable-based proteins, it would be the equivalent of taking 19.2 million cars off the road for one year.

That’s why for this year’s Low Carbon Diet Day on Thursday, April 24 (a few days after Earth Day, which falls during Passover), your Dining team will use a cooking demonstration to discuss the impact of beef and dairy and encourage guests to swap them for other choices occasionally, whether vegetarian or pork and chicken. (Those animals emit much less methane over their lifespans.) They’ll also prepare a Low Carbon Makeover of an all-American burger in which the beef and dairy have been replaced by turkey patty and house-made pesto. Signage will explain these switches, and why Bon Appétit has made them.

We began celebrating Low Carbon Diet Day one year after the 2007 launch of our Low Carbon Diet program — which made us the first in the industry to address how food choices can affect our shifting atmosphere. We long ago accomplished our goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions as a company in the highest-impact areas, including reducing our own purchases of beef by 33% and cheese by 10% since launching the program. Many of the cheeseless pizzas first introduced on Low Carbon Diet Day have become beloved menu staples at our accounts around the country.