Cool Food Collective Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline and 2030 Reduction Target

This research paper by the World Resources Institute establishes the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions baseline and the 2030 reduction target for the Cool Food initiative, a global group of dining facilities.

• The Cool Food initiative aims to help dining facilities, including hotels, restaurants, universities, hospitals, corporate campuses, and city governments, achieve a science-based target of reducing food-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 25 percent by 2030 compared to a 2015 baseline.
• As of December 2019, the Cool Food collective consisted of 30 members who serve approximately 852 million meals annually. These members reported purchasing over 129,000 tonnes of food in the base year.
• The total baseline annual food-related carbon costs for Cool Food members are estimated at over 4,286,000 t CO2e. This figure combines agricultural supply chain emissions, estimated at more than 810,000 t CO2e, and carbon opportunity costs—the carbon that could be stored if production land returned to native vegetation—estimated at more than 3,475,000 t CO2e.
• Animal-based foods are the primary driver of the group's GHG emissions profile, accounting for 89 percent of the total. Within this category, ruminant meats such as beef and lamb account for 71 percent, while other meats, eggs, seafood, and dairy account for 18 percent. Plant-based foods represent the remaining 11 percent.
• Achieving the 25 percent reduction target would lower the group's annual emissions by more than 1,071,000 t CO2e by 2030 relative to the base year, which is equivalent to the annual tailpipe emissions of over 230,000 passenger vehicles.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Cool Food Collective Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline and 2030 Reduction Target. https://www.wri.org/research/cool-food-collective-greenhouse-gas-emissions-baseline-and-2030-reduction-target

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Cool Food Collective Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline and 2030 Reduction Target. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/cool-food-collective-greenhouse-gas-emissions-baseline-and-2030-reduction-target.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Cool Food Collective Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline and 2030 Reduction Target |url=https://www.wri.org/research/cool-food-collective-greenhouse-gas-emissions-baseline-and-2030-reduction-target |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcool, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Cool Food Collective Greenhouse Gas Emissions Baseline and 2030 Reduction Target}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/cool-food-collective-greenhouse-gas-emissions-baseline-and-2030-reduction-target}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }