Sustainability in Action Across Our Business

This year marks 10 years of Stop Food Waste Day, a global movement led by Compass Group to unite people and communities in the fight against food waste.

But here’s the thing… food waste isn’t solved in a day.

Food waste is reduced every time a Chef makes a smart swap, a team rethinks portions, surplus food gets repurposed instead of binned or data helps a kitchen make a better call tomorrow than it did today.

Across Compass Group Australia (CGA), sustainability is part of how we design menus, run kitchens and show up for our communities. Here’s some examples of how we’re turning food waste reduction into everyday action.

A Repurposed Wonderland

When National Executive Chef for Defence, Adrian Schembri, looked across his sites, he saw plenty of great ideas happening, clever repurposing, creative problem‑solving and zero‑waste thinking. The problem was, due to the geographical dispersed nature of his sites, these great initiatives weren’t always being shared.

So, he brought them together. The Repurposed Wonderland Cookbook captures real recipes created by Defence Chefs on site, showcasing the simple, practical ways teams are transforming surplus ingredients into something new.

“One of the standout success stories has been the use of aquafaba (chickpea water) at Randwick Barracks,” Adrian explains. “The team turned it into vegan mayonnaise, then took it a step further, using the same technique to make egg‑free meringues and even bread‑free crumb for proteins. It’s a great example of reducing waste without compromising on quality.”

Click here to learn more about Defence’s achievements in sustainability

Reusing & Innovating at Scale

At an event the size of the Australian Open, small decisions add up fast. In 2025, Levy supported food service operations across Melbourne Park in collaboration with Calyx.eco, a sustainability software platform that turns complex environmental data into practical action.

Using Calyx’s Foodvu platform and Eco‑Score system, menu ratings showed guests the environmental impact of food choices. For Chefs and teams, it unlocked practical insights behind the scenes, from ingredient swaps to smarter procurement decisions. While guests could see the impact of their choices, the real shift happened in the kitchen, where Chefs used that insight to design better menus from the start.

“Australian Open is one of three grand slams that Levy delivers globally. Last year, we served 1.2 million customers and what that really allows us to do is start looking at large levers of impact throughout our operations,” shares Simon Jackson, Head of Sustainability. “The largest lever is looking at the food we serve and understanding the ingredients that go into our recipes to make sure that our customers don’t have to necessarily make that choice. We look at the menu engineering and ensure we have the right products for them.”

And the results went well beyond data. Through food donations across AO26, the team helped provide approximately 6,000 meals and 2,000 snacks through The Salvation Army to people in need, supporting communities doing it tough.

Learn more about Levy’s work at the Australian Open

Fighting Food Waste with Real‑Time Data

Across CGA, food waste reduction is being powered by insight. With Leanpath, CGA’s tracking platform, now in place at over 200 sites across Medirest, Morrison Living, Defence and ESS, teams are using smart scales, AI‑powered analytics and daily engagement to understand exactly what’s going to waste and why.

Through this, since April 2022, we have:

• Prevented over 2.6 million kg of food waste from occurring
• Saved the equivalent of over 4.8 million meals
• Helped avoid 18,365 metric tons of CO₂ emissions

“In Culinary, we know reducing food waste starts with deep respect for ingredients and for the people who grow them,” shares George Fourskarinis, General Manager – Culinary. “By combining our industry experience with a strategic business lens, we’ve embraced tools that turn intention into action. Leanpath plays a critical role in that journey, giving us real-time visibility to identify and reduce waste as it happens. Paired with our menu management platform, Jaleh, we’re only producing what’s needed.”

Learn more about how one ESS site puts sustainability on the menu

Turning Surplus into Support

CGA and Foodbank share a common goal of reducing surplus food sent to landfill by rescuing and redistributing nutritious supplies, while supporting local communities. As of April 2026, as part of our national partnership, we have:

• Volunteered 214 hours, with Support Office teams contributing across four states
• $2,820 donated via corporate volunteer fees
• Donated 1,000+ meals and 240kg of food from Chartwells

In December 2024, we took things a step further, launching a 12‑month Chef secondment at Foodbank WA’s Community Kitchen in Perth. Head Chef Roland Drollett is now working alongside Foodbank WA Head Chef Melissa Davoine, helping deliver around 2,500 nutritious meals each week, with capacity set to grow by 1,000+ additional meals per week.

“One standout moment so far was transforming half a kangaroo carcass into multiple meals, including a delicious stew,” Chef Roland shares. “Not something you would usually expect to find! It really highlighted what zero‑waste cooking can look like in action. I’m excited for what we’ll achieve together in the upcoming year.”

Learn more about our partnership with Foodbank

This Stop Food Waste Day and beyond, our teams continue to make real change in kitchens, sites and communities every day of the year, combining creative repurposing and smart data to turn good intentions into action.