GERMANY. Travel food & beverage company casualfood has launched its own sustainability brand named ‘POP – Protect Our Planet’. All the firm’s efforts to enhance sustainability with regard to ‘people, planet and products’ now come under this banner.
As its first new initiative under the brand the company is using a fully compostable ‘Earth Cup’, produced by a manufacturing partner, for hot drinks at its restaurants and stores. Unlike many other cups of its type, this mono-material cardboard cup has a plastic-free coating.
This means it can be fully recycled with waste paper or even composted at home. The cup is made in France to what casualfood describes as the strictest quality and food safety standards.
The company claims the cup manufacturing process has less of an impact on the environment than the production of other types of cup.
“POP – Protect our Planet aims to show that casualfood is wholeheartedly dedicated to sustainable corporate governance now and in the future” – casualfood Joint Managing Director Michael Weigel
Further, the travel catering firm is conserving resources by using the POP – Protect Our Planet branding on all consumables, such as the new hot beverage cups, across its entire portfolio of catering and store concepts.
Later in the year, this branding will also appear on consumables such as paper bags for baked goods/sandwiches and carrier bags, instead of the name of the respective outlet. The uniform branding is being implemented to conserve resources.
The stepping up of casualfood’s sustainability efforts follows the launch of two pilot projects at Frankfurt Airport earlier this year. The first involved ‘RECUP’ returnable cups, which have been used at selected casualfood restaurants and stores.
The circular deposit system is designed to substantially reduce the use of disposable cups. Customers pay a deposit of €1 for a RECUP and get this money back when they return the cup.
As part of a second collaboration, casualfood has donated unused food which is still fit for consumption to the foodsharing.de initiative for further use and distribution.
casualfood Joint Managing Director Stefan Weber said: “We’re proud that casualfood has long since added to its reputation for innovative concepts by becoming a pioneer in the development and use of sustainable options. Ever since we started the company, this issue has always been very important to us.”
casualfood Joint Managing Director Michael Weigel added: “To underscore and further develop our focus on sustainability, we decided to roll out our own brand dedicated to sustainability. POP – Protect Our Planet aims to show that casualfood is wholeheartedly dedicated to sustainable corporate governance now and in the future, and will keep working on this issue moving forward.
“We have also set up a permanent, interdepartmental sustainability team at the company to redouble our efforts.”
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