Sphera recently presented its latest sustainability report for 2023, in which the company stated that it managed to implement 100% efficient lighting in all its restaurants and at the same time, the acquisitions for the food required for production, have been made in a share of 80% from local suppliers.

We talked to Costică Mișaca, ESG director, Sphera Franchise Group, to find out more about the other ESG goals the company was able to achieve, but also about future plans through which Sphera officials want to have a lower impact on the planet.

Costică told us that at Sphera, environment, social and governance performance is being measured through multiple key indicators, such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, as well as the share of local acquisitions and a diversified workforce.

The three main restaurant chains that are part of the Sphera Group are KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut and for each of those, the raw materials are being procured from suppliers who respect the rights and well-being of the animals. At the same time, local suppliers have a priority, which can have an important source of income and a big company to which it can reliably sell their products.

At the same time, the ESG Director for Sphera says that the restaurants in the company's portfolio have vegetarian alternatives in their menus as a response to the request for sustainable alternatives, the plant-based ones being one of the essential components of a future-proof food system.

Sustainable and locally-sourced food alternatives, alongside energy-efficient restaurants, are the two main pillars when it comes to Sphera's mission to turn into a responsible business, but these aren't the only solutions. Recently, the companies from the group started experimenting with biodegradable packaging, as well as recycling systems.

Edible packaging represents a technology about which we wrote two years ago on Green Start-Up, which although aren't implemented at large scale, could contribute to a less-polluted world.

Back to Sphera Group, in 2023, the company's experts that implemented the environment strategy managed to cut Scope 1 emissions by 10%, while Scope 2 emissions were reduced by 5% and the LED illumination systems installed restaurants-wide helped lower power usage by 3.63%.

At the same time, the Sphera official said that, transforming a traditional business in a sustainably business is a process that implies continuous education, investments in new technologies and sometimes, transforming the entire operational processes.

He also talks about the benefits that come with this transformation, benefits which we enlisted here in the past, such as improving customer satisfaction, as they are paying closer attention to sustainability, long-term economies and attracting financing from investors that themselves are being more careful where they send the funds.

The sustainability challenges in the food industry

The ESG Director of the Sphera Group told Green Start-Up that there were a few initiatives from restaurants that customers noticed, but that haven't affected the experience in a negative way, but there have been those that were met with resistance, although are becoming more acceptable.

Eliminating wet wipes was, for example, one of the changes for the environment that didn't affect the satisfaction of the customers, unlike paper straws or wooden cutlery, which customers don't necessarily view as changes that improve the experience. Sphera Group replaced plastic straws back in 2019 and two years later, the plastic cutlery with wood-based alternatives, from carefully managed forests.

"Currently, we are being focused on cutting single-use packaging and replacing it with recyclable or reusable versions. Between our different brands, some 85-98% of the packaging are recyclable, reusable or compostable and are made from recyclable or renewable raw materials. We aim that, by the end of 2025, all our plastic packaging will be reusable or recoverable."

But being more environmentally friendly is a challenge and a process that involves education and self-education, the scope being that of finding a balance between becoming more sustainable and maintaining the quality of the services.

Another challenge underlined by Sphera Group's representative is the changes that are being made to EU's ESG reporting guidelines, which are sometimes difficult to adapt between the company's restaurants and require precious resources.

Sustainable development opportunities for Sphera

Beyond these challenges, there are actions adapted for each restaurant so that their individual activity isn't affected, but to ensure the road to the green future that the officials of the group desire. So, in order to optimize the use of resources, without compromising on the demand, each restaurant's production is adapted depending on the products that are being ordered more often by the customers, while this can be changed in real time, if the need may be.

This is done to avoid food waste, but even if there is an excess of foods at the end of the day, Sphera collaborates with various non-profit organizations that can make use of these resources and turn them into menus for vulnerable people.

This program was implemented in Romania and Italy starting 2017 and in 2023 alone, the 28 involved restaurants from Romania, as well as the 4 from Italy, were able to save 5 tons of food, diverting it to those in need.

Another opportunity for development lays within renewable energy, which represents a priority for the leadership. Thus, for the restaurants that operate in commercial centers, Spher Group has no control over the energy consumed there, as that is being supplied by the operator of the building. However, Costică told us that there is an increasing interest in the direction of implementing renewable power sources within these centers to help decarbonize them.

For the units which are under the full control of Sphera, however, he explained that power purchase agreements (PPCs) have already been signed and for those that can support solar panels, there are undergoing plans to implement these systems for a clean power supply.

Future sustainability plans for Sphera Group

The main area of interest for the company continues to be reducing the carbon footprint and extending the reduction goals to Scope 3 emissions. For this, the company will need to collaborate closer with its suppliers, which need to have a more planet-friendly approach themselves.

Eliminating plastic and introducing more plant-based alternatives in the menus are two other strategies that will contribute to a sustainable future at Sphera and the actions for the communities will also continue to support vulnerable people.