En Route International, has launched ‘Four The Future’ – a new strategy aiming to reduce its impact on the environment and help its customers meet their individual environmental targets.
Built around four key principles: reduce, remove, replace and reimagine, the campaign will be launched at 2019 World Travel Catering & Onboard Services Expo (WTCE) in Hamburg, Germany.
As part of its activity the company has also announced that, by working closely with its clients, it will remove plastic linings from its boxed hot hand-held product categories. These can now be replaced with biodegradable alternatives which are manufactured from renewable resources.
En Route is already undertaking a broad range of initiatives as part of the new programme, which will sit alongside future activity planned for 2019 and beyond. The new, four-pronged approach will see En Route develop a broad range of initiatives which will further mitigate its environmental impact.
The company has already seen how a reduction in the complexity of its Emirates Business Class cheese service helped to cut the overall product weight by more than 20 tonnes per year. The reduction of overall tonnage of material has resulted in less packaging waste and the reduction in weight helps to lower fuel burn across the supply chain and in the air.
Over the course of the next year, En Route’s innovation team will be working on reimagining service concepts to tackle the issue of environmentally harmful materials present in many pre-packaged products.
En Route will underpin its expertise in developing innovative solutions by utilising its creative teams and working with suppliers and airline partners as part of a wider CSR strategy that is being led at board level.
Robert Dalboth, managing director, En Route, said: “As a responsible global business, we understand the positive impacts we can have on society as a whole, which is why our joined-up approach to CSR covers a multitude of activities, from charitable contributions to health and wellbeing initiatives.
“We know that, as an agile business, we can be a force for good for broader society and we are constantly looking at different and creative ways to do this.”
Richard Wake, creative and marketing director at En Route, added: “En Route is passionate about bringing about positive change in our industry. We have always been one of the strongest innovators in our sector and will continue to push the boundaries of what is possible with food service in the travel market.
“Working closely with our global supply base we will respond rapidly to this growing need to reduce the industry’s impact on our environment”
Key Targets:
– All cheese packaging to be made from biodegradable, compostable, or recycled/recyclable materials by 2020.
– All bakery packaging to be made from biodegradable, compostable, or recycled/recyclable materials by 2020.
– All hot handheld packaging to be made from biodegradable, compostable, or recycled/recyclable materials by 2020.
– The company will conduct a full audit of all packaging used across its entire supply chain. This will ensure that all packaging, from passenger facing products to outer cases, are optimised to minimise unnecessary packaging by 2020.
– Environmental KPIs will be embedded into all innovation projects immediately.
