Use data to reduce food waste
Turning to technology is crucial to tackle one of the biggest workplace challenges: food waste. By adopting AI-powered tools, food service teams can track what’s being discarded and make smarter decisions about recipes, portion sizes and purchasing. Our partnership with Winnow for this has enabled us to drop food waste by 46% and saved €6.5 million (£5.7 million) as of 2025.
Hannah Hughes, ISS UK’s Marketing & Retail Concept Director, says: “Recognising that the UK alone produces circa 9.5 million tonnes of food waste annually, we have created a strategy to minimise waste and make disposal practices more sustainable. Winnow uses computer vision to help our people calculate the weight and cost of food waste, identify areas for improvement, and release their true savings potential.”
Adjusting production based on workplace occupancy data also is an effective way to ensure meals are matched to demand, reducing unnecessary waste.
Responsible sourcing for sustainable menus
Sustainable food service often begins with responsible sourcing. Organisations should prioritise ethically produced, local and seasonal ingredients, supporting nearby suppliers and maintaining high food safety standards. Responsible sourcing and innovative waste reduction methods at our Nordea customer sites in Sweden and Denmark were in fact two of the initiatives that enabled us to earn the Nordic Swan Ecolabel certification.
There’s also a growing shift towards plant-forward menus, which help lower the environmental impact of food services. Using these different ingredients can also be an effective way of getting more people in the office regularly, as they can learn new and interesting recipes.
Hannah says: “As part of our plant-forward approach and carbon reduction targets, we work closely with Redefine Meat. By championing a plant-forward approach to our menus, we can help to reduce the impact of traditional meat production and processing, without compromising quality or flavour.”
Another way to reduce environmental impact is if chefs embrace circularity by creating dishes from parts of ingredients that might otherwise be discarded, turning potential waste into culinary innovation.
