A recent report published by the Center for Biological Diversity revealed that offering plant-based foods instead of steak or chicken at your next 500-person sales meeting can reduce your carbon footprint by 10 tons of greenhouse gas equivalents. According to the report, Catering to the Climate, these simple menu changes would also save five acres of habitat and 100,000 gallons of water that would have been used for irrigation and food processing.

Dr. Jennifer Molidor, the report’s co-author and the center’s senior food campaigner, says the idea for the report stemmed from a menu analysis done in 2018 for the COP24 (the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), where top scientists were served a high-carbon diet.

“That led to our interest in asking other environmental organizations in the U.S. to match up and serve plant-based menus at their events,” Molidor says. “We felt we needed to come out with the data and make it very clear what significant impacts menu changes could make immediately.”

To that end, Molidor’s team surveyed 25 venues, caterers and organizers to determine what obstacles were preventing the industry from embracing F&B sustainability. The researchers learned that while everyone seemed open to the idea, each stakeholder assumed the others wouldn’t be.

“We realized that venues, caterers and planners need to work together, so we put together an analysis of common items served at these types of events and did footprints for them,” Molidor says.

Research was broken into separate areas to determine the impact of event menus on climate, water and habitat loss and manure production.

“We found out that the manure footprint of animal-based dishes tends to be higher than the actual weight of the food served—there’s more toxic manure production to make your steak than the item itself, which is startling,” Molidor says. “Switching out a meat-based entrée can lower carbon emissions by up to 90 percent.”

Conference venues are prepared to make plant-based menus if asked, Molidor notes, but it’s important to promote that option so more planners can choose it.

“The easiest and most impactful way to introduce change is to have a plant-based menu that you don’t talk about and it’s just delicious,” she says. “Our analysis showed that people are willing to do this, and in most industries, it’s met with really positive results.”

Plant-based meals served at events can also influence food policies within organizations, Molidor adds, noting that major awards shows in the U.S. now offer plant-based menus.

“It’s so exciting, because that gives a public face to the real impact of menu changes,” she says. “If you make an event where people have a successful, positive plant-based experience, it becomes easier to make more systemic changes. We wanted our report to help tell that story, so it’s not coming across as just trendy, but something that's important, dire and immediate, and also delicious, easy and successful.”