News

What's a Climatarian? Just ask Just Salad

Provided

April 17, 2020

Just Salad is hoping to inspire customers to eat "Climatarian" in celebration of Earth Day (Wednesday, April 22) by offering $2 off three of its lowest-carbon emission menu items April 20-24. The offerings include:

• Avo Blast Toast (0.1219 kg CO2e)
•  Beyond Tex Mex Salad (0.1445 kg CO2e)
• Tokyo Supergreens Salad with Tofu (0.2067 kg CO2e).

"This Earth Day is like none other given the grave challenges of COVID-19, so we wanted to do something in support of both human and planetary health," Sandra Noonan, chief sustainability officer, said in a press release. "Every meal is an opportunity to do good for ourselves and for the planet, so we've created a promotion around the notion of 'climatarianism' — eating in a way that's minimally harmful to the earth and ultimately, to our species. Climatarians focus on eating foods with low carbon footprints, so we're sharing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with some of our lowest-impact menu items."

The promotion applies to orders placed for delivery or pickup through the Just Salad app, according to the release.

The food system accounts for one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and researchers have quantified the emissions associated with the American diet to average 4.7 kg CO2e per person, per day, with plant-rich diets falling significantly below this average, according to the release.

Eating a plant-rich diet is one of the top ways to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius or less by 2050, according to Project Drawdown, a nonprofit working toward achieving lower levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Just Salad, which aims to serve as the "green standard” of sustainability in the restaurant space, has previously taken action to provide lower-impact menu choices. Last year, it removed grass-fed beef from its menu and replaced it with Beyond Meat's plant-based beef alternative, which is associated with 90% lower greenhouse gas emissions.

"We see a future where the carbon footprint of food is disclosed in the same way that calories and fat are shown on a nutrition label," Founder and CEO Nick Kenner said in the release. "This would go a long way in helping people make dietary choices that support their desire to live sustainably, and could become a hallmark of the sustainability-minded restaurant of the future."

Just Salad opened in 2006 in New York City and has nearly 50 locations in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Dubai.