BEHAVING RESPONSIBLY
gategroup
Enhancing the transparency of our corporate governance.
Transparent governance
Ambition
Develop exemplary, transparent, and auditable reporting and governance standards by 2025.
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Target
- Align sustainability reporting to international best practice standards.
gategroup is committed to upholding ethical standards and compliance across our operations.
To ensure effective governance, compliance, and risk management, the company has established a Global Risk and Compliance Committee and Business Regional Risk and Compliance Committees, which meet on a quarterly basis.
gategroup’s risk management system is aligned with the ISO31000:2009 Risk Management Standard and supported by an ongoing program of education and training.
The gategroup Food Safety program is based on the ISO 22000:2018 Food Safety Management system and consists of the 4 pillars: Interactive communication, Management system, Prerequisite Programs and HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) principles. This ensures maintenance of a continual improvement cycle on all levels in the company and control over every step in the production flow, from receiving to delivery of final products to our customers.
Keeping our data secure is crucial for our company. We are dedicated to maintaining high standards of reputation and data privacy. Our all-encompassing IT/Cyber security strategy involves several key elements, including ensuring smooth operations, adhering to strict regulations, protecting sensitive information, and proactively defending against constantly evolving cyber risks.
Our whistleblower program, the SpeakUp line, provides a platform for employees and external stakeholders to report possible issues anonymously.
Responsible supply chain
Our global supply chain network includes over 12,000 providers of products and services. These suppliers predominantly consist of food and beverage manufacturers, global consumer goods brands, and wholesalers specializing in the food service market, operating primarily within local delivery areas.
Ambition
Develop a transparent and audited responsible group supply chain by 2040.
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Targets
- Gain transparency on sustainability performance of our Tier 1 suppliers covering 70% of procurement spend by the end of 2025.
- Use 100% cage-free eggs by 2025.
In 2023, our focus on ESG Procurement & Supply Chain requirements strengthened through trainings for our Global Procurement team members, reaching over 92% of them.
To ensure supplier compliance, we employ rigorous screening processes and expect corrective actions when deficiencies are found. In 2023, we conducted a high-level assessment of all suppliers in scope and evaluated an improvement potential in 3% of them. By the end of 2023, 33% of our ESG-focus suppliers signed our Supplier Code of Conduct (implemented in 2022). Follow-up steps may include ESG self-assessment based on SASB Sustainable Industry Classification System®, collaborative work to improve a supplier’s ESG standing, or contract termination.
In addition to the work on the supplier level, we continue to improve the sustainability of our sourced products. Our commitment to responsible food sourcing extends to animal welfare considerations, with ongoing efforts to transition to cage-free egg products by 2025 and to prioritize certifications for farmed salmon by 2030.
Product stewardship & innovation
Ambition
Establish gategroup as a sustainability-focused leader in the catering service industry through innovative culinary product stewardship.
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Targets
- To improve animal welfare and emission impact in our supply chain, offer 50% of hot dishes with plant protein in our newly designed menus by the end of 2025.
- To eliminate single use plastics in our product offering, use 100% reusable, recyclable, or compostable packaging by the end of 2025.
Sustainability presents culinary challenges, but also opportunities to delight passengers with fresh, inventive, healthy, and environmentally friendly dining options. Our culinary teams are embracing the challenge, prioritizing seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, and considering CO2 emissions in menu design, sourcing, production, and delivery.
As culinary experts, we’re dedicated to sharing our knowledge with the global community. That means serving our direct customers and sharing knowledge in our culinary studios worldwide. We are committed to working in collaboration with internationally renowned culinary institutions to train and develop emerging chefs who inspire innovation and augment our in-house talent pipeline.
In line with our ESG Framework 2025, we’re setting ambitious targets for our product catalog. During 2023, we worked toward the target of increasing the offering of plant protein-based hot dishes and aligned our systems and databases to optimize tracking of this metric. Additionally, we have built a global cloud-based recipe library that we use to analyze, collect, and design recipes and menu concepts for our customers in the air and on the ground.
Through our subsidiary deSter, we’re driving circularity in packaging solutions. Since 2020, all new product launches from deSter have been reusable, compostable, and recyclable. Our goal for 2025 is to extend this standard across the entire deSter product line and to ensure 100% use of responsible resources. By 2030, our ambition is for 100% of our products to create zero waste and to sell only products with a guaranteed circular life cycle.