HRC talks to Annelie Selander, Chief Sustainability Officer at premium catering and hospitality business WSH, to learn more about the evolution of the CSO role and how hospitality businesses can integrate ESG initiatives into the heart of what they do. 

What was your first role relating to sustainability/the environment?

I first picked up responsibility for sustainability as early as 2014 in my then role as Marketing and Innovation Director for a Nordic food brand. The food industry was still struggling with rebuilding consumer trust in the aftermath of the horse-gate scandal and sustainability, or Corporate Social Responsibility as it was still know as then, was quickly becoming a necessity for any credible brand wanting to reduce risk and build its corporate reputation, or goodwill.

For the last 6-7 years, sustainability and lately ESG is what I do, and it’s probably the first time throughout my +25 years in the food industry, that I truly feel I’m making a difference.

What does your current role cover?

As CSO at WSH, a premium catering and hospitality business in the UK and Europe, I oversee the design, delivery, governance and disclosure of Second Nature, WSH's ESG platform.

Second Nature is a holistic ESG strategy that underpins the work we do in the environmental and social space. It covers four pillars, supported by 26 targets,  that together create a strong, coherent and solid platform from which specific initiatives and activities are developed.

Second Nature ensures high minimum standards and addresses the most material areas for us as a business but equally, it provides a great springboard for innovations and new ideas that go over and beyond what we are currently doing, and have committed to delivering.

The four pillars are aimed at fostering inclusive workplaces, nurturing talent, fostering progressive partnerships building on our belief in providing nutritious food from fresh, local and seasonal produce, and stepping up environmental efforts to deliver our Net Zero by 2040 commitment.

How do you think the role of CSO has evolved in recent years?

Today, as a CSO, you are in essence delivering transformation in a complex, ever changing environment with little to no resources, often relying on the mercy of other functions.

This is very different from when I first started where in essence you were a project manager, responsible for a sustainability programme with limited scope, scale and often impact.

Back then, it was still called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and the focus was very much around giving back to society, often through some community engagement project.

As it evolved to be known as sustainability, and the triple bottom line concept was gaining traction, it became more nuanced and sustainability plans or programmes would be more influenced by a business most material impact areas. The focus was very much around limiting any negative impacts, the ‘do less bad’ idea.

A business could still decide to address only its most material issues and it would still be considered credible and responsible to do so. The role tended to be either a specialist with deep, technical knowledge of a specific area, or a generalist role responsible for delivering the agreed plans.

Today, it encompasses everything from strategy, business planning, stakeholder and risk management to delivery, communication and reporting. The rise in external scrutiny and influx of regulations, including the fast growing reporting aspect, requires a very different approach and it can feel like time and energy is dedicated to data gathering and sharing instead of driving and delivering some actual positive change. 

Why is it important for businesses to have roles specifically focussed on sustainability/ESG?

The impact on a business if the ESG areas are not properly understood and managed, can be detrimental. Equally, if the benefits are mapped and leveraged, it can be a massive opportunity.

I see my role as a CSO linking risks and opportunities together, balancing the one with the other and bringing more of a long term perspective to the board room. 

2050 is only 25 years away. My children will be younger then, than I am now and the same goes for many of our senior leadership teams. The climate impact we live today, has been built up over the past 80-100 or so years. We need someone in the business to be a trusted, knowledgeable ‘voice of concern’ to help us make informed choices.

What have been some of the changes/initiatives that have made the most impact on WSH’s sustainability efforts?

As a food and hospitality business, our impact on the environment can be significant, and as we rely on natural resources to be able to operate, we work hard to ensure that any impact we have is minimal.

This past Sunday, July 21st, was the hottest day on record ever, and no surprise, our sustainability work centers around our commitment to be Net Zero across our value chain by 2040, which I’m really proud to share was approved by the SBTi – the Science Based Target initiative, in March this year, together with a target to reduce our so called FLAG (Forest, Land and Agriculture) related emissions.

Part of delivering our ambitious Net Zero and FLAG targets is to work in close collaboration with our suppliers; and building strong, long lasting supplier relationships is something we value highly. Working directly with suppliers, farmers and producers is one way we can drive positive change and we are increasingly doing that through championing regenerative practices, expecting suppliers to commit to net zero and transition to higher food production standards.

We are, and have always been, about local, seasonal, fresh produce built on an ethical and responsible supply chain. Developing approaches to holistic nutritious sustainable diets that encompass people and planet is our north star.

Three of the many initiatives, or programmes, we run, that helps drive the change are:

• Food Waste Costing the earth: Created as early as 2014, and continuously scaled to cover more locations, we segregate, weigh and report food waste as plate waste, production waste and spoilage waste. This has allowed us to track not only weight of food waste but also, energy savings, disposal cost savings and the resultant carbon impact savings. We are committed to reduce food waste 20% by the end of 2024 vs 2019, and are currently on track to deliver.
• Championing Nutritious Sustainable diets: We are taking a holistic approach covering recipe and menu composition, assessing environmental impact of recipes as part of the design process, carefully considering how we nudge consumers and support a switch to a low impact diet which includes promoting beans and pulses, launching 50/50 burgers, introducing ingredients farmed using regenerative farming methods and so on. In one of our businesses, we are seeing emissions from meat and poultry reduce almost 22% first half of 2024 vs same period last year, which is really encouraging. 
• Ditching disposables: We will always look to minimise single use, wherever possible, and follow the waste hierarchy to ensure we have a waste stream available to manage any materials we use. Over the years, we have introduce award winning materials and solutions to keep reducing our use of single use material.

To find out more about WSH's family of independent hospitality brands visit wshlimited.com.