EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
You may not have heard of Westbury Street Holdings ( WSH ). However , you will be familiar with some of the many hospitality brands it owns and manages .
They include :
• Benugo cafes and restaurants at locations including the V & A Museum and Greenwich Park , London
• Searcy ’ s , the UK ’ s oldest catering business , founded in 1847
• Notes coffee shops and bars , which are located at landmark London spots including The Gherkin and Canary Wharf
• Brook Foods , with 29 workplace restaurants across Ireland
• Meyers , a Danish company that offers catering , restaurants , canteens and bakeries .
In all , WSH owns 13 businesses , all of which offer different services within the hospitality industry .
With sustainability such a critical subject and the hospitality industry still relying on long supply lines , driving down GHG emissions in the various firms is no easy task .
Annelie Selander is not daunted , though . Annelie is WSH ’ s Chief Sustainability Officer and has a real passion for cutting carbon and handing over a living , breathing planet to the generations to come .
Annelie spoke to Sustainability Magazine about the recipe for sustainability success .
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OUTLINE YOUR SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP BACKGROUND
When I first got involved in sustainability , it was still called CSR , when I was Marketing Director for an established coffee brand . Ethical considerations and conduct were high on the agenda and we would discuss different certifications and whether our focus should be on people or the environment – as if there could be a choice .
I ’ ve since gone on to develop and deploy two sustainability strategies , both in the food industry : one for a leading pan-European frozen food business and one for WSH .
I ’ m all about impact and want to believe that ‘ strategy into action ’ is my superpower .
WSH is a collection of businesses across catering and hospitality , built around an ethos of fresh , local and seasonal food prepared and served by our brilliant teams . This makes WSH a great starting point for delivering an even more sustainable offer .
We always say that our teams are hungry for change in our industry and with Second Nature , our ESG strategy , in place , we are uniting to take positive action on sustainability . We currently cover seven geographies in the UK and Europe , employ more than 26,000 people at over 3,000 sites and estimate we serve more than 2.6 million customers daily . If we can enrol all of them as ambassadors for change , that ’ s the impact we can have .
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