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Le Pain Quotidien UK Becomes Carbon Neutral

04-05-2017

At Le Pain Quotidien, they believe that our environment is everything. Their mission to serve fresh, wholesome food means that they consider the impact they have on the environment in nearly every aspect of their business. In this vein, we are thrilled to announce that the UK restaurants of Le Pain Quotidien have been certified carbon neutral by the climate advisory organisation CO2logic – an exciting step for Le Pain Quotidien in their ongoing sustainability journey.

 

What does it mean to be carbon neutral? To become certified carbon neutral, Le Pain Quotidien calculated their carbon emissions, made efforts to bring them to as low a level as possible, and then offset those that are unavoidable by investing a carbon-reducing project elsewhere.

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How did they achieve carbon neutrality? After calculating their own carbon emissions, one of the major actions they took to reduce them was retrofitting all lighting in their restaurants with LED lights, a simple step that allowed them to cut down on light-energy consumption by an astounding 80%. They have taken this retrofit initiative nationwide and are building all new restaurants with LED lighting. Le Pain Quotidien also made strides in using more efficient refrigeration, cooking and cooling operations to make their carbon footprint as small as possible.

 

Their rustic décor is made with recycled wood material which means more trees and less wastage. They also focusing on their suppliers as they are taking a big part of their journey: where they can they schedule night deliveries to reducing transport miles and congestion. They are proud to say that their selected glass/dishwasher supplier is the first in the UK to achieve Carbon Footprint certification.

 

The coffee cups and bags are made of compostable material and they are operating with a strict wastage recycling procedure in each restaurant.

 

Of course, restaurant operations still create some carbon emissions. That’s where the offset comes in – they are supporting our Gold Standard-certified project in Uganda that distributes efficient cooking stoves to reduce wood consumption. This helps to lower deforestation and reduce toxic fumes, while still enabling local families to have effective and functional cooking methods which, of course, at Le Pain Quotidien understand is a fundamental part of a happy life.

 

They are not stopping here – their goal is to go carbon neutral globally by 2020!

 

Le Pain Quotidien is incredibly proud to be part of this movement, a sentiment that was perhaps best captured by their global CEO, Vincent Herbert: “we want to be part of the growing community that addresses climate change by reducing our climate impact – and this is just the beginning.” It is just the beginning – from here, they hope to soon expand this carbon neutral program nationwide, and one day, globally.