Whitbread to set sugar and salt reduction targets

Setting 'relevant' sugar and salt reductions across its menus is one of Whitbread's new CR commitments. 

The owner of the Premier Inn franchise and the Costa coffee chain has announced a series of new Good Together 2020 targets after making 'significant progress' towards exisitng 2017 goals. The Good Together programme was launched in 2009 and is built around three pillars of Teams & Communities, Customer Wellbeing and Environment. 

The sugar and salt reduction pledge comes under its Customer Wellbeing pillar which also now incorporates a commitment o achieve 100% accredited supply for 10 critical product sourced commodities (cocoa, coffee, cotton, fish, meat, palm oil, soy, sugar, tea and timber).

Under its Teams & Communities banner, the company is to further increasing employment opportunities in the hospitality industry, planning to create 15,000 UK jobs, 7,500 work experience placements for school and college pupils and 6,500 structured employment placements over the next five years.

On the energy front, having already exceeded its 2017 carbon, water and waste targets Whitbread has set new 2020 targets to reduce carbon by a further 15% and water by 20%, both against a 2014 baseline, and to increase the direct operations recycling rate across the estate to 80%. 

Simon Ewins, director of CSR at Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants commented: “At Whitbread, we set ourselves stretching targets across our business and our corporate responsibility commitments are no exception. We are incredibly proud of the progress we have made towards our existing 2017 targets, and in line with our wider business approach, it was important for us to review these achievements and push ourselves further to achieve more.

"We would encourage all businesses to look at how they can further enhance their environmental and societal impact and would invite business leaders to work with us to share best practice across this common aim of a more sustainable future.”