ARAMARK Ireland, which employs over 4,000 people located across Ireland, the UK and Europe, has published its annual Corporate Responsibility Report and recognised the contribution of its employees to environmental awareness and sustainability.
Donal O’Brien, CEO of ARAMARK, says: “We believe that every business needs to accept their contribution to the climate change crisis and assist in combating it. By utilising our skills and knowledge base in the area of Environmental Services, Health & Wellness, Energy Management and Quality & Safety our employees have successfully driven environmental awareness across our 980 locations.”
Among the initiatives introduced by ARAMARK Ireland include:
* Encouraging Employees to adopt sustainable modes of transport to work through participation in the cycle to work scheme which is part of the smarter travel to work campaign.
* Reducing waste to landfill and identifying and implementing water reduction opportunities in ARAMARK sites across Ireland.
* Promoting and sourcing local produce with its Celebrate Irish Food campaign which encourages customers and employees to support local Irish suppliers and producers. Each year ARAMARK spends over Eur45 million supporting local suppliers.
* Focusing on sustainable food, ARAMARK became Ireland’s first food services company to promote the new Responsible Irish Fish label across its Food Services division, supporting Irish fishermen and giving clients confidence in the origin and quality of seafood served.
* Assisting in the campaign against obesity, ARAMARK is empowering Ireland’s workforce to make informed choices in the company’s restaurants and retail operations. Its Right Track programme is a dedicated Health & Wellness programme aimed at creating an awareness of healthy eating and work life balance. ARAMARK, which serves over 250,000 meals every day unveiled Olympic Champion Katie Taylor as the company’s Health & Wellness Ambassador in 2012.
Donal O’Brien also points to the success of ARAMARK’s Energy Management division which is helping clients achieve significant energy savings. ARAMARK’s Environmental Services team is implementing the Optimising Power @ Work campaign in 250 state buildings on behalf of the OPW in order to assist with a reduction of 20% in total carbon dioxide emissions. Other clients for whom ARAMARK’s Environmental Services has undertaken Energy Performance Contracting building refits include, the Royal Victoria Eye & Ear Hospital and Liffey Meats, delivering annual energy savings of between 24% and 18%.
“Putting sustainability and environmental awareness at the heart of our business has resulted in ARAMARK adopting a progressive approach which has had tangible benefits for our company, our clients and our suppliers,” he adds.