How Azzurri Group Adopted Foodsteps To Address Decarbonisation Challenges Across Their Portfolio
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Azzurri Group, a Foodsteps customer and one of the UK's largest hospitality investment platforms, operates popular brands including ASK Italian, Boojum, Coco di Mama, Zizzi, and the UK’s first Dave’s Hot Chicken franchise. Committed to achieving net zero by 2040, the Group began its sustainability journey in 2021. In 2023, they successfully reduced absolute emissions and achieved a 10% reduction in emissions intensity. We spoke to Claudia Candiotto, Head of Responsible Business at Azzurri Group, about their journey.
“Following the successful LCA of Wildfarmed flour, we confidently made sustainable marketing claims, compliant with the Green Claims Code, highlighting the 50% reduction in dough emissions. This led to a successful media campaign, increasing public awareness of Azzurri's overall sustainability achievements. Building on this success, Azzurri is actively pursuing additional Life Cycle Assessments with the help of Foodsteps as of July 2024, further enhancing its commitment to sustainability across all brands.” — Claudia Candiotto, Head of Responsible Business at Azzurri Group
The Challenges
Establishing a Carbon Baseline
“To reach its ambitious targets, we (Azzurri) needed to accurately assess the carbon footprint of our entire food offering. This required building an accurate carbon baseline to identify and drive impactful changes in our supply chain and menu”.
Identifying Supply Chain Carbon Hotspots
“As with most food businesses, the majority of our carbon footprint arises within the supply chain. Accurately measuring this at scale became a high priority, with the group working with Foodsteps to shift away from secondary data toward primary data sources for greater accuracy, which we pulled from the Foodsteps database and through working with Foodsteps Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs).”
Engaging Customers in the Sustainability Journey
“We recognised that reaching our climate goals also depended on customer engagement. As such being able to support consumers in making climate-conscious menu choices becomes a clear unlock for us.”
The Solutions
Comprehensive Carbon Footprint Analysis
“In 2022, we began uploading the full food catalogue for ASK Italian, Coco di Mama and Zizzi to obtain a detailed view of the carbon footprint of their recipes. Using Foodsteps' sustainability platform and Carbon Labels, we identified the highest-impact recipes among our best-sellers, supporting internal decision-making on recipe reformulation to lower impact in our future menu cycles and marketing campaigns. We also identified the lowest rated items (A-B rating) in Coco di Mama's menus and displayed their Carbon Labels on menus, digital signage and key retail areas to help encourage climate conscious food choices in customers.”
Leveraging Foodsteps for Accurate Food Impact Assessments and Sustainable Reporting
“We now use group-wide impact analysis from Foodsteps for detailed Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) ensuring we have thorough cradle-to-gate data accuracy on ingredients and products. This data has been essential for making quick internal decisions on engaging suppliers as well as for our public facing communications such as our Sustainable Dining Reports.”
Recipe Reformulation for Impact Reduction
“Through our carbon footprint analysis, we identified dough, a key ingredient in ASK Italian's menu, as a top emissions contributor. Despite a relatively low carbon factor, its heavy usage—comprising nearly a third of the menu—prompted a need for change. In 2024, ASK Italian partnered with Wildfarmed to replace its traditional dough recipe with one featuring regenerative flour. This reformulation led to a 50% reduction in dough-based product emissions, confirmed by a subsequent LCA conducted by Foodsteps.
The Outcomes
Three Key Workstreams for Emission Reductions
“We have identified three critical pathways for decarbonisation: recipe reformulation, improving data accuracy, and engaging suppliers. The Group has collaborated with suppliers and food brand teams across our brands to explore additional opportunities for reducing food-related emissions.”
Successful Product Launches and Commercial Impact
“Coco di Mama utilised Foodsteps data to reformulate its best-selling tiramisu overnight oats, swapping dairy yoghurt for coconut yoghurt. This change reduced the carbon footprint by 26% and led to a successful product launch in Spring 2024. The lower-carbon offering not only resonated with customers but also drove commercial success.”
Marketing and Regulatory Compliance
“Following the successful LCA of Wildfarmed flour, we confidently made sustainable marketing claims, compliant with the Green Claims Code, highlighting the 50% reduction in dough emissions. This led to a successful media campaign, increasing public awareness of Azzurri's overall sustainability achievements. Building on this success, Azzurri is actively pursuing additional Life Cycle Assessments with the help of Foodsteps as of July 2024, further enhancing its commitment to sustainability across all brands.”
Group-wide Sustainability Integration
“Looking ahead to the future, we’re determined to reduce the carbon footprint of our food in alignment with our ambition to become a net zero business by 2040. We're actively trying to tweak the impact of our most-loved (meat heavy) recipes, work with suppliers on LCAs and review our goals and science to ensure we are moving in the right direction.”
About Azzurri Group
The Azzurri Group is one of the UK’s largest and most successful hospitality investment platforms. We operate two leading national Italian full service brands, Zizzi and ASK Italian, the UK’s leading quick-service Italian, Coco di Mama, renowned Irish fast casual Mexican restaurant brand Boojum and most recently the world famous, ‘mind-blowing’ fried chicken brand Dave’s Hot Chicken.
Azzurri employs nearly 6,000 people, serving over 15 million meals annually in our growing estate of over 230 restaurants and stores.
