Health and Sustainability Strategy

With more than 430 restaurants in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Umoe Restaurants is the leading restaurant company in Scandinavia. This brings large social responsibility.

The foundation of our health and sustainability strategy is how we can make a positive difference that creates long-term values for people, the environment and for our business. We aim to do this through our core business and the job of more than 9000 co-workers.

Daily we deliver around 125 000 guest experiences in Scandinavia, and we are aware of the influence we have on many areas of our community, both in Scandinavia and throughout our supply chains locally and globally. Our proactive approach to health and sustainability is an insurance we give to our co-workers, guests, community and partners. Through cooperation and joint focus, we create a large collective boost. Together we make the world around us a bit better and more sustainable.

Several of the challenges soicety faces needs urgently to be solved. The solution to many of the world's largest environmental and health-related challenges are found within the food industry. We will contribute and take an active part in this. We aim to turn social challenges like these into opportunities of innovation, which then can turn into new business opportunities.

For Umoe Restaurants, economic growth and sustainability goes hand in hand.

Our health and sustainability strategy is structured based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the principles of UN Global Compact. We have grouped our main activities around four of the SDGs. On this page you can read more about our strategy, visions and some of our on-going projects.

Our vision:

Scandinavias leading restaurant group on healthy, tasty and sustainable meals

Our core business is closely tied to food and food experiences. We continously work on innovation and developing food and drink menus on our 340 cafées and restaurants. Good health and well-being is important for both our guests and our co-workers. That is why we have set ambitious goals on developing and offering healthy, tasty and sustainable meals.

Here you can read about some of the projects we have started within the goal of good health and well-being.

Healthy, tasty and sustainable meals

Sustainable coffee

All coffee from cafées and restaurants run by Umoe Restaurants is certified by one or several certifications for sustainable coffee. This includes, among others, Fair Trade and organic certifications. The certifications set social, environmental and financial requirements that contributes to more sustainable farming and compliance with human rights and labor rights. This is positive for both the financial and social development of farmers and workers.

Sustainable meals

We continously work on developing new healthy and sustainable meals. One of our most important partners in this work is EAT Foundation. Read more about this in the section "Dedicated partnerships".

During the last year we have increased our investments in plantbased food. For instance, in 2018 both Peppes Pizza and Burger King launched vegetarian burgers. Each Monday, Peppes Pizza arranges "Meatfree Monday" with strongly reduced prices on meatfree dishes. Last year Peppes Pizza increased their range of vegetarian and vegan pizzas with 40%, and these products now comprise entire 8% of the total pizza sale.

Summer 2018 we also opened our first LEON restaurants in Oslo. LEON is based on a sustianble concept where you only serve naturally fast food. This means that they only use natural ingredients with no artificial aromas or colorants, and LEON has strict requirements to all ingredients that go into the food. During the next years, we are opening a number of new LEONs in Norway and in Sweden.

Product standards and ethical guidelines

We have developed a product standard guide that we use on our purchases and supply chain. In this guide, we have defined a number og standards related to quality and sustainabillity. All ingredients and products that we use has to be produced and labelled according to current regulations. The product standard also defines requirements related to animal health. We want to use clean ingredients and products without unnecessary additives, sweeteners and additives solely for visual improvements on the food. We have also focused on reducing the amount of salt, sugar and saturated fats by developing new recipes and menus.

Here you can read about the ethical guidelines we have with our suppliers.

National action plans for better diets

We want to take an active position in national action plans for a better diet, where focus is healthier and more sustainable food. In 2018, we signed a letter of intent on facilitating a healthier diet with the Ministry of Health and Care Services. The intention agreement will lead to a more coherent and overall collaboration between the food industry and the health authorities to make it easier for consumers to make healthy choices. The goal is to make it easier for a larger proportion of the population to have a balanced diet that is in line with the authority's dietary advice.

These are some of the most important areas we are working with:

Reduction of salt. Several of our chains have been part of the Salt Partnership and from 2016 to 2017 we reduced our use of salt by 4 tons.
Reduction of added sugar
Reduction of saturated fat
More use of fruits and berries, vegetables, coarse grain products and seafood.

Our Vision:

Scandinavia's most inclusive employer

Our co-workers are our most important resource, and we are proud of the diversity and the competence we have within our organization. In Scandinavia we count 9000 co-workers. 56% of them are women, we comprise more than 100 nationalities and we are the first employer to more than 30% of our co-workers.

As the first employer to many young people it is important to us that we provide them a safe and professional start to their working life. Below you can read about some of the projects we have started, about our results and about our focus for the future.

Work placement to groups that has fallen out from working life

Each year all our chains run programs that provides work placements for groups that has fallen out of working life. This can be youths, seniors, immigrants or people with different forms of disabilities.

In all countries where we operate we will facilitate inclusion and work placements to those that have falle out of working life. Our most important partners on this are:

Ringer i vannet (Norway)
NAV (Norway)
Arbetsförmedlingen (Sweden)
KLAP (Denmark)

Stepping stone into working life for youth

Around 80% of our co-workers are under 30 years old, and we are the first employer for more than half of them. It is important to us that our youth is met with a working life that feels safe, predictable and gives room for personal and professional development.

Leadership development

Umoe Restaurants Academy is our leadership development program for leaders at different levels within our company. It comprises three modules:

Foundation is mostly a one-day seminar within different areas of our business (restaurant economy, EHS, recruitment, basic leadership, communications). These are run both in Norway and Sweden.
My leadership role consists of four seminars within one year. It is created for leaders that has worked for 12-18 months and that has finalized the Foundation. This part is run by each partner in Norway and Sweden.
Refill is for experienced leaders that has worked 5 years or more.

Our vision:

Set industry standards for waste management and circular economy

We aim to lead the work on waste management and circular economy. Our goal is to waste the least possible amounts. We work on establishing new routines to ensure efficient use of the resources we currently waste. If these resources are held in a closed loop we are increasing the share of recycling and reducing the demand for new materials.

Some of our most important work on this area is reducing food waste, using the best materials (for instance in packaging), and increasing our recycling. Below you can read about some of the projects we are working on.

Food waste

All our chains are working on reducing food waste. Below you can read about three projects that contribute to this.

KuttMatsvinn2020

All of our chains are taking part in the insdustry campaign for reducing food waste (KuttMatsvinn2020/Reducing food waste 2020). The goal in this joint effort is to reduce food waste by 20% within 2020. By participating in this project we measure and report our food waste and contribute to strengthening the overall industry data on food waste, which has been very limited until recently. Our co-workers also get access to new competence and training tools.

Too Good To Go

The best way to reduce food waste is to avoid that it is created, but certain days there is still food left when it is time to close. This is valuable, nutritios and tasty food that we do not wish to throw away. Too Good To Go is an app that makes it easier for us to sell this food to highly reduced prices. Starbucks, LEON and a number of restaurants in Blender are using Too Good To Go.

Goodiebags

We have employed a number of activities to reduce food waste in our kitchens. To make it easier for our guests to do the same, we aim to make it a routine that all guests are offered a goodiebag to bring their leftovers home. Please ask us for a goodiebag (doggybag) if we are not offering this to you quick enough!

Single-use plastics

We want to take an active responsibility to reduce our own and our guests use of single-use plastics, and contribute to higher value of the packaging. Here are some of the actions we have implemented in 2018:

Reduce the number of single-use items made from plastic

In 2018, we have mapped out all our single-use items made from plastic that we use in our restaurants. We are now implementing actions to reduce the use of uncessesary plastics. We are also removing many items made from plastic, replacing them with materials that are recylcable or compostable.

Peppes Pizza:

Stops using plastic straws. These are now only available on request during a transissioning phase.
Single-use cutlery and napkin is added to deliveries on request, not automatically added to all deliveries.
Take-out packaging for pizza, salads, hamburgers and desserts are recylcable.
Balloons with helium are no longer in use, and we will stopp using all types of balloons now.

Fridays: Plastic straws are not handed out with drinks except for when it is requested. Durring 2018 we are phasing out all plastic straws.

Blender (chains such as La Baguette, Eataly and Café Opus): In all 40 restaurants we will stop using plastic straws. These are only handed out on request from guests. We will also stop using balloons.

LEON: Only using paper straws and plastic cups that are recylcable.

Burger King: In restaurants where the guest fills his own drinks, the guests have to choose if they want plastic straw and lid, this is not handed out with every purchase. We have also started a process to influence Burger King internationally to replace plastic straws and lids with a more sustainable material.

Starbucks: Plastic cups and paper cups are recylclable. Starbucks awards those who use the reusable cups. If you bring your own cup to Starbucks, you recieve 5,- discount on the coffee. Several restaurants use reusable cutlery that can be cleaned and used several times. We are working on finding alternatives to single-use items in plastic.

Supplier cooperations

We are also working with our suppliers to investiaget how we together can create solutions to reduce unecessary use of single-use plastics.

Waste management

We will become better at deploying resources in waste to create new value. Good waste management and recycling is important fo the environment, but will also contribute to keep valuable resources in an on-going loop. A high degree of recycling is also financially beneficial for our company.

We measure our degree of recycling in our chains, and also work on how we can use these resources in a circular economy.

All our chains work in their own improvement programs for recyling routines, so that the efforts are targeted to increase our degree of recycling.

Our vision:

We must operate a value chain that does not contribute to deforestation

Globally the agriculture, directlly and indirectly, accounts for around 30 percent of green house gas emissions. We work to practice a sustainable food production and value chaing that does not contribute to deforestation. This is important to reduce green house gas emissions, but also to maintain a biodiversity and to preserve the rainforest.

CO2-neutral deliveries

We want deliveries of goods to our 430 restaurants in Scandinavia to contribute to the least possible green house gas emissions. Through close communications and cooperations with our suppliers and partners, we continously work on actions to reduce our Co2-emissions. Our goal is that all deliveries will be Co2-neutral within 2022.

Deliveries to restaurants

Through more climate friendly choices, better logistics and by streamlining activites, we have reduced our yearly deliveries of goods by 7000 deliveries in Sweden. In 2017 we reduced the number of deliveries in Norway by 15 000. This translates into a significant reduction in Co2-emissions.

Delivery of take-out pizza

Peppes Pizza has started to improve the current car pool. Some take-out units has already finished this work, and when the whole chain is done, all pizza delivery from our own restaurants will be done from electric cars, electric bicycles or hybrid cras. This action will save the environment of 350 000 kilos of Co2-emissions each year.

Charging points at restaurants

We want to make it more simplefor our guests to charge their electric cars.

Our Burger King restaurants are placed by the most trafficked roads in Norway, and together with Grønn Kontakt we are now building rapid charging points in these locations. We want guests to be able to charge their cars and at the same time have something good to eat.

The first rapid charging points that Grønn Kontakt are building are planned to be operational from fall 2018.

Palm oil

We work on phasing out all use of palm oil in our own food production. The palm oil we use is RSPO-certified.

We are part of The Norwegian Initiative for Sustainable Palm Oil (NISPO), where we together with several other Norwegian companies work to make the world's palm oil is produced in a sustainable way, with respect to peopple, animals and environment, so that it does not contribute to deforestation.

Our vision:

Collaboration with partners

Many of our projects tied to health and sustainability we do by ourselves. To push for the larger changes in society, we believe that tight collaboration is key. There also needs to be established a strong intersectoral cooperation where the business sector, governments and organizations work together.

We have entered into a strategic partnership with two dedicated partners that contribute to ensure the quality of our work on health and sustainability. They possess knowledge to help us find good solutions, while they also challenge us to work focused and with ambition.

EAT Foundation

Ethical Trading Initiative Norway

As the first restaurant group to become a member, Umoe Restaurants joined the Ethical Trading Initiative Norway (IEH) in 2017. With this membership follows commitments and requirements to improve sourcing practices and suppliers. IEH's mission is to promote responsible supply chains, so that international trade contributes to ensure human rights, labour rights, sustainable development and responsible environmental practices.

IEH advices us on our sustainability work. Some of their most important contributions are to perform risk analysis of our supply chain, quality assurance of product requirements and Code of conducts, and provide courses for employees on topics within etchial trade.