Apetito Cuts Carbon with Green Brochure

Leading meals provider, apetito | Wiltshire Farm Foods has showcased how smart use of choice architecture can deliver meaningful carbon reduction of more than 500 tonnes of CO₂e per year, without restricting customer choice or impacting commercial performance, following the success of its ‘Green Brochure’ initiative.

Developed in response to the fact that almost 70% of the business’ total greenhouse gas emissions are from its food, the initiative targeted one of the biggest drivers of food-related emissions: red-meat dishes, which carry significantly higher carbon footprints than meals containing white meat, fish or plant-based proteins.

Applying the principles of choice architecture, the Wiltshire Farm Foods ‘Green Brochure’ was designed to subtly encourage customers towards lower-carbon meal choices. This was achieved by adjusting product order and positioning so that red-meat based dishes were no longer at the front of the brochure and lower-emitting meals had more visual prominence, choosing fish-based and white meat-based products for ‘hero’ photography, and excluding red-meat dishes from the bundle discount offers – all without reducing choice or relying on overt sustainability messaging.

The first pilot, carried out in summer 2024 across three Wiltshire Farm Foods sites, delivered a 1.39% reduction in carbon emissions per unit, alongside an uplift in the share of white-meat meals sold, with no negative impact on sales.

Following this success, the trial was expanded in 2025 to cover 25% of the customer base. Despite taking place over the winter months, when customers traditionally favour heartier, red-meat dishes, the expanded trial delivered even stronger results, achieving a 1.52% reduction in emissions per unit and 1.87% fewer red-meat meals sold compared with control sites.

If rolled out to all customers, the initiative could deliver savings of more than 500 tonnes of CO₂e annually, an extremely impressive result for the meal provider, according to Lee Sheppard, Director of Corporate Affairs, Policy and Sustainability at apetito:

“This project perfectly shows how small, evidence-based design decisions can deliver meaningful carbon reduction at scale. By applying simple behavioural science principles, we have achieved a reduction in emissions without compromising on choice for our customers, or commercial performance.

“Innovative initiatives like this continue to support our progress to achieving our ambitious 2030 carbon reduction targets, and our onward journey to Net Zero by 2040. This initiative also has clear potential to be applied in other meal and catering settings, where menu design plays a key role in influencing lower-carbon choices.”

Following the success of the trials, Wiltshire Farm Foods has begun a full rollout of the ‘Green Brochure’, with all customers set to receive it as standard from summer 2026.