World Resources Institute (WRI), Washington, D.C.; United Nations Environment Program, Kenya; Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance (CNCA), Boston, Mass.; Health Care Without Harm US, Reston, Va.; Practice Greenhealth, Reston, Va.; and Climate Focus, Washington, D.C., joined forces to develop The Cool Food Pledge initiative.

The Cool Food Pledge is a platform designed to help facilities track the climate impact of the food they serve and develop plans to sell dishes with smaller climate footprints.

How the pledge works:

• Pledge. Signatories commit to a collective target of reducing GHG emissions associated with the food they provide by 25% by 2030 relative to 2015—a level of ambition in line with keeping global warming below 2⁰C. The Cool Food Pledge team will advise signatories on how to gather the necessary data and conduct periodic monitoring of the associated metrics.
• Plan. The Cool Food Pledge team will provide guidance to signatories to help develop a plan for serving more climate-friendly food while meeting other dining-related targets (e.g., number of diners, financial performance, nutrition). The Cool Food Pledge will also connect signatories with organizations producing innovative products, solutions and training to achieve more sustainable diets. Pledge signatories can then share and learn from others about what works.
• Promote. The Cool Food Pledge team will provide inspiring employee- and consumer-focused messaging that can be used to support signatories’ existing sustainability campaigns. Signatories’ collective performance against the GHG target will be published annually, and individual achievements will be celebrated at an annual event.