Panera Bread, a restaurant chain with over 2,000 locations across the United States, announced a new partnership with World Resources Institute (WRI) to begin labeling “Cool Food Meals” – or items on the menu with lower climate impacts. The WRI outlined a maximum carbon footprint for individual consumers and has used those metrics to inform and categorize Panera’s menu items to inform consumers of the impact their eating choices have on the climate. They were the first restaurant chain to adopt WRI’s climate-conscious badge back in 2020.
So what?
The move by Panera bread reflects a trend in consumer behavior towards making informed decisions to help curb climate change. The endeavor encourages consumers to make choices based on the environmental footprint of their plate, increasing the visibility of the impact of consumer decision-making. This could in turn increase demand for items with a lower carbon footprint, such as foods grown with regenerative practices.
To see how these different signals across the agriculture system are impacting the future system that we envision, keep an eye out for the upcoming report from
Growing our Future.
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