The non-profit organisation says building resilience is becoming as important as reducing emissions for hospitality businesses, necessitating the expansion of industry collaboration
The Zero Carbon Forum has welcomed Sysco GB as its first wholesaler supplier member, as the non-profit looks to extend industry collaboration up the supply chain, a response to the increasing price volatility and variable availability of key ingredients as a result of extreme weather events.
UK agriculture alone is estimated to lose around £1bn each year to extreme weather, according to Defra, while prolonged wet conditions reduced agricultural production by around 20 per cent in 2024.
For hospitality businesses, the Zero Carbon Forum said, building more resilient supply chains was becoming as important as lowering emissions.
“For the first time,” it stated, “leading suppliers and wholesalers will work alongside operators to improve supply chain data, develop practical solutions and accelerate action that strengthens resilience while reducing emissions across the food and drink value chain.”
The strategy mirrors the model the Forum used to bring together competing operators like Burger King, KFC and McDonald’s to tackle shared operational challenges, with operators reducing direct energy emissions by 52 per cent and identifying more than £5m in energy savings as a result.
The Forum is now applying that same approach across the supply chain, a recognition that many of the biggest climate risks facing hospitality businesses are outside their own operations.
“The next challenge is the supply chain,” said Mark Chapman, founder and CEO of the Zero Carbon Forum. “Climate change is already affecting the food and drink operators rely on every day, creating greater volatility, increasing costs and exposing new risks. No operator can solve those challenges alone. By bringing suppliers like Sysco GB into the Forum, we’re extending that proven model of collaboration across the value chain, helping businesses build more resilient supply chains while reducing emissions through practical, shared action.”
Pete Statham, head of sustainability at Sysco Europe, commented: “Hospitality businesses are under real pressure to decarbonise while staying commercially resilient. Joining Zero Carbon Forum allows us to support operators with the scale, data and supply chain insight needed to make meaningful, measurable progress.”
