Aligning Climate and Business Goals for a Winning Strategy

About CookUnity

‍CookUnity is a first-of-its-kind chef marketplace, delivering prepared, artisan meals to food enthusiasts around the country. Breaking the boundaries of the current restaurant model, they democratize access to professional chef-made food for consumers and provide a platform that empowers chefs to succeed as culinary entrepreneurs. Founded in 2018, CookUnity initially started in New York and has grown across the US, now with seven kitchens across the country. With their focus on delivering elevated, restaurant-quality meals to consumers, they have set a high standard with certain non-negotiables within the CookUnity Ecosystem to ensure they create a solid connection from farm to kitchen to table.

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The Challenge

‍ “Healthy eating, environmentally conscious” is CookUnity’s mainstay mindset, and creating a positive impact is what consistently drives the company. Their ultimate goal of creating a new food model with a net positive impact on people and the planet is pushing the company to look at how they protect our planet, especially when it comes to all the diverse, delicious foods that chefs get to use in their artisanal toolbox.

The company has tackled this through a variety of levers, addressing their zero waste goal through a few programs: 

1. Sourcing ingredients through environmentally minded organizations, to guarantee their meals supports other organizations that are doing right by Mother Nature. 
2. Minimizing Food Waste by allowing chefs to only cook what they have already sold. This is a crucial step to ensuring edible food won’t be thrown away, reducing landfill and also supporting donations when possible through their partner, Rethink. 
3. Returnable Packaging, enabling their consumers to leave insulated bags and ice packs for pick up through their partner, Dispatch Goods to upcycle and reuse on future meal deliveries.

CookUnity has built a network of leading partners to help them establish and progress on their net zero goals. Wanting to understand the impact of our food system down to the ingredients, CookUnity needed a partner who could provide in-depth agricultural data and guide them through the best choices for their meals.

The Solution

‍CookUnity took a two-pronged approach when assessing their carbon footprint, first from a business perspective and then through customer engagement with their Direct-to-Consumer model. 

Knowing the importance of seeing the full picture, CookUnity worked with Planet FWD to conduct a Corporate Inventory across their top two kitchens in New York and Los Angeles, illuminating the influence Scope 3 emissions had on their business.

Planet FWD conducted Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) on their ingredients, which resulted in an eye-opening finding: up to 61% of their emissions across their two top facilities were driven by the type of ingredients they are purchasing.

Because ingredient purchases are something that CookUnity has control over, the team was excited by these findings and what it meant for their sustainability strategy. With newfound clarity around the companywide emissions impact ingredients play, CookUnity decided to create a new climate-friendly menu, to design menu items with sustainability in mind. This initiative was their first step toward broader tactics to expand and promote sustainable suppliers and increase production efficiency for all meals.

<span class="small-blockquote">"Working with Planet FWD is really inspiring and simple, always supporting our creative ideas and constantly looking for innovative initiatives to help reduce our impact and do it better for our planet."</span>

<span class="blockquote-wrap">
<strong>Mary Bengochea</strong>
Sustainability & Standards Director, CookUnity
</span>

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Results & Benefits

‍Having expanded their understanding of their supply chain, CookUnity is now sharing this knowledge across their ecosystem. Their team is educating their chefs on what ingredients are the most carbon-conscious, inspiring their internal teams to get creative with climate solutions such as expanding reusable packaging, and empowering consumers to support the planet through their daily choices. 

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How are they inspiring their behavior change amongst customers? With their brand new Climate-Friendly Collection of meals available for their LA market. 

CookUnity enlisted the help of Planet FWD again to create this offering. The collection showcases low-carbon meals with whole foods and high-quality, sustainably sourced ingredients that deliver nutrition and protect our planet.

<span class="small-blockquote">"At CookUnity, our purpose is to help reduce the impact of food on our planet by offering a selection of delicious, nutritious meals that empower people to make sustainable choices, nourishing themselves and the environment. Partnering with Planet FWD is key to measuring the impact of our Climate-Friendly meals and making sustainable food options more accessible for food enthusiasts."</span>

<span class="blockquote-wrap">
<strong>Mary Bengochea</strong>
Sustainability & Standards Director, CookUnity
</span>

By pursuing Corporate Inventory and Life Cycle Assessments for their meals, CookUnity is tackling their net positive impact goal from a top-down and bottom-up approach. CookUnity has taken it a step further by embedding their findings into company initiatives through biannual goals. This type of intentional commitment drives progress by enabling the stakeholders within and beyond the company to incorporate progress and take action. 

We can’t wait to see the Climate-Friendly Collection evolve and grow as CookUnity reaches new heights in their growth as a conscious company.