How Four Corners are reducing the carbon impact of their menus

In 2023, the Four Corners team at The Hoxton, Poblenou, spearheaded a pilot project within Ennismore to calculate and reduce their carbon emissions.

We’re on a food sustainability mission here at Ennismore, including reducing our food waste and carbon emissions. With over 300 restaurants and bars across Ennismore, we’re looking at how to impact change. One pilot we launched last year was to measure the carbon emissions on our menus and work sustainably to reduce those emissions over time.

The food industry accounts for up to a third of all global emissions due to the overall eating habits of our society. These eating habits significantly impact our planet, causing climate change to intensify. Different factors can impact a menu’s carbon emissions, including where the food is sourced, how it is produced, and its impact on the local ecosystem. Making small changes in these areas can significantly impact reducing the carbon emissions of a menu.

Spearheading the first pilot within Ennismore, we partnered with Klimato, a powerful food sustainability solution that empowers businesses to measure, track, and reduce their environmental footprint through its cutting-edge, science-backed solution.

How does it work exactly? Using Klimato’s platform, the team began by calculating the carbon footprint of all the items on the Four Corners summer menu, analysing various factors such as ingredients, production methods, and countries of origin.

After crunching the numbers, the Four Corners team discovered that their summer menu had an average carbon footprint of 3.1 kg Co2e per meal sold. In Spain, the average is 1.7 kg Co2e, meaning the team would have some work to do to reduce the carbon emissions on their menu.

Looking at the score of the individual menu items, Four Corner set to work to reduce the overall carbon emissions for their winter menu.

Leading the change on the team, Marcos Sierra, Head Chef at Four Corners, tells us about how he went about making changes to the menu, “As Head Chef, I started creating the new Four Corner’s winter menu, as I usually would. However, this time, with the help of the Klimato platform and team, we could identify the low, medium and high-emitting ingredients and recipes,” he says, “With these insights, we made minor adjustments to our recipes that drastically reduced our carbon footprint without compromising taste or quality.”

The result: Four Corners were able to decrease their carbon footprint by 40% in January 2024 with the new menu. Averaging 1.79 kg Co2e per meal sold, the new menu reduced the ratio of higher impact items and gave more carbon emission-friendly options for guests to choose from.

“As a chef, leveraging Klimato has empowered me and my team to implement a more climate-friendly menu while reducing costs. In the process of sourcing more environmentally sustainable ingredients, we’ve discovered some amazing local food producers and made no change to the taste of our dishes,” Marcos tells us. “And as we develop new menus, we’re aiming to reduce our emissions further and move towards a more sustainable future, Our partnership has allowed us to understand and reduce our carbon footprint but can also help inspire our guests to make more environmentally conscientious choices”.

Anton Unger, CEO and co-founder of Klimato, applauds Ennismore and The Hoxton‘s commitment to sustainability: “Klimato is the easiest way for businesses to demonstrate that they’re prioritising sustainability. Today, hundreds of global businesses trust us to help them reduce their carbon footprint, meet their sustainability goals, stay compliant and optimise revenue. We’re delighted that The Hoxton is leveraging Klimato’s technology highlighting its dedication to environmental responsibility and customer transparency. We’re honoured to be able to work together.”

At Ennismore, we’re proud of the work Marcos and his team at Four Corners have done to reduce their carbon emissions. Paving the way for other teams to follow, we’re rolling this pilot project out to more of our restaurants and bars across Ennismore in the months to come. And for the exciting restaurants and bars in the pipeline, we think it’s important to think about where our food is sourced, how it’s produced, and its impact on the local ecosystem from day one.

The Four Corners partnership with Klimato has kickstarted a revolution in how we think about carbon emissions caused by our food. But it’s only one small piece of the puzzle on our food sustainability journey – we still have more to do.