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Just Salad exec: 'A calorie label simply isn't enough'

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June 5, 2020

Just Salad is embracing carbon labeling, which means its menu will feature the carbon footprint that reflects the total estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of ingredients in each menu item, according to a company press release. Calculated in partnership with a team of New York University Stern School of Business MBA students through a Stern Solutions Project, Just Salad's carbon footprint labels will be complete by Sept. 21, Sandra Noonan, chief sustainability officer said in the release. 

"Our food choices will have a profound effect on the fate of our planet," she said. "By carbon labeling our menu, we're embracing climate-smart eating, helping our guests eat for planetary and human health. A calorie label simply isn't enough anymore  — we need to know how our food choices affect our wellbeing at a planetary level. Our new carbon labels will provide that insight, helping guests make more holistic choices that take climate change into account."

Just Salad added plant-based Beyond Beef to the menu last year and by 2022 will offer plant-based cheese options, which have a lower carbon footprint than their animal-based counterparts.

The company's carbon labeling project is inspired by "climatarianism," a way of eating that takes planetary health into account. Research indicated that plant-based diets were a weapon against climate change: By halving annual consumption of animal-based products, Americans would reduce diet-related greenhouse gas emissions by 35% and move the U.S. 25% closer to its targets under the Paris Climate Agreement. Similar to Just Salad's Reusable Bowl program, its carbon-labeling initiative empowers consumers to make choices that protect our earth and species alike.

"Labeling our menus about the carbon footprint of producing different dishes is a vitally important way to educate consumers about sustainable diets," Diego Rose, professor, and director of nutrition at Tulane University said in the release. "I'm excited to see an innovative restaurant, like Just Salad, take the lead on this. We need the food industry to step up, and hopefully, they can show that doing well by the planet can also be good for the bottom line."

The work that Just Salad is doing to educate people about their food choices as they relate to planetary health is imperative, according to Sophie Waskow Rifkin, senior associate director of the Center for Sustainable Business at NYU Stern School of Business, which facilitated the project.

"I'm incredibly proud of our MBA candidates who are passionately dedicated to sustainability and helped Just Salad take this historical step for the betterment of the restaurant industry and our planet," she said.

Just Salad was founded in 2006 in New York City and now has more than 40 locations in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina as well as four locations in Dubai.