JJ Foodservice has pledged to cut its environmental footprint by moving its computing infrastructure to the cloud and offering more vegan products.
Food production accounts for more than a third of carbon emissions, making it critical for businesses like JJ, which suppliers thousands of caterers and retailers, to operate more sustainably.
“We are on a journey to migrate to cloud-based services using Microsoft Azure, which has committed to being carbon negative by 2030,” Mick Dudley, chief technology officer, said.
By shifting to cloud-computing, the business will rely less on hardware and physical machines. The result is a reduction in energy use and environmental impact.
Migration to the cloud can achieve significant carbon reduction in the form of a 5.9 per cent decrease in total IT emissions, according to research.
Alex Faupel, Director of Azure, Microsoft UK, said: “We are delighted to be working with JJ to support the organisation’s sustainability goals.”
The migration is expected to be completed within the next 24 months.
JJ Foodservice has already reduced total carbon emissions by 54 per cent since 2014.
“This is a great achievement when you consider that we’ve opened three new branches in that time,” Dudley noted.
JJ will also expand its vegan and organic produce, and biodegradable-packaging offering in other carbon-cutting measures.
Sales of vegetarian and vegan products increased by 22 per cent over the past two years, while bio-packaging sales have surged by 86 per cent.
“We want to continue helping our customers to eat more sustainably by offering an even wider range,” said Sezer Ozkul, chief product officer.
Last year, JJ was granted the Organic Food Soil Association Certificate for its Enfield, Dagenham, Sidcup, and Leeds branches.
“The combination of sustainable growth and the excellent service we are well-known for, will help us to cater for our customers for many generations to come,” Dudley concluded.
