14 march : IT’S NOT JUST the headcount at Google that’s getting smaller. Like other Silicon Valley giants retrench- ing amid financial uncertainty, Google has cut thousands of jobs since January 2023. But the com- pany is also accelerating changes within its lavish corporate cafeterias a longtime lure for tech employ- ees-that will both reduce costs and cut the company’s food waste.
From offering smaller milk containers to cooking eggs on the spot instead of in advance, Google has found ways to put less food in the trash while trying to make sure employees don’t feel cheated out of one of the company’s most beloved perks.
Google’s food waste goals are set on a 2025 timeline, which is tighter than the 2030 deadlines tied to many of its other sustainability efforts. The company said in March 2022 that it aimed to cut waste per employee by half and send zero food waste to landfills by 2025. By the end of 2022, it had already diverted 85% of waste. “The near-term nature of it makes it challenging,”
said Kate Brandt, Google’s chief sus- tainability officer. The company hasn’t released more recent num- bers but Brandt said they are “see- ing good progress.”
Serving more than 240,000 meals a day, the 386 cafes that make up Google’s global foodservice operations outnumber the world’s approximately 360 Cheesecake Fac tory locations. Google also operates more than 1,500 microkitchensand 49 food trucks for employees. At this scale, the tech giant is essentially
runninga restaurant company. That means its experiments offer clues for how other foodservice compa- nies could approach efforts to trim carbon footprints or slash costs. Indeed, the just-in-time eggs,
Know these detail also :-
■Google operates over 1,500 microkitchens and 49 food trucks
for employees
■Food
waste has been a focal point in Google’s sustainability efforts
The firm in March 2022 said that it aimed to cut waste per employee by half
That’s just one example of ongo- ing tweaks. “Literally thousands of things have changed,” said Andrew Shakman, CEO of Leanpath, a tech- nology firm that offers automated food-waste tracking and has been
which cut Google’s scrambled egg waste by 44% in its Bay Area kitchens, have already made their way elsewhere. Compass Group, the foodservice provider that worked with Google on the change, has implemented it at hundreds of additional locations.
working with Google since 2014. Food waste has been a focal point in Google’s sustainability efforts because it is a major contrib- utor to global emissions: By some estimates, it’s responsible for about 8% of all human-caused green-house gases.