Just Salad, a fast-casual concept serving healthy food at an affordable price, announced a special promotion to inspire customers to eat “Climatarian” this Earth Day (Wednesday, April 22). The sustainably minded fast casual chain is offering $2 off three of its lowest carbon emission menu items April 20-24: Avo Blast Toast (0.1219 kg CO2e), Beyond Tex Mex Salad (0.1445 kg CO2e) and Tokyo Supergreens Salad with Tofu (0.2067 kg CO2e). The promotion applies to orders placed for delivery or pickup through the Just Salad app.
“This Earth Day is like none other given the grave challenges of COVID-19, so we wanted to do something in support of both human and planetary health,” says Sandra Noonan, Chief Sustainability Officer of Just Salad. “Every meal is an opportunity to do good for ourselves and for the planet, so we’ve created a promotion around the notion of ‘climatarianism’—eating in a way that’s minimally harmful to the earth and ultimately, to our species. Climatarians focus on eating foods with low carbon footprints, so we’re sharing the greenhouse gas emissions associated with some of our lowest-impact menu items.
The food system accounts for one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions globally, and researchers have quantified the emissions associated with the American diet to average 4.7 kg CO2e per person, per day, with plant-rich diets falling significantly below this average.[1] Eating a plant-rich diet is one of the top ways to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius or less by 2050, according to Project Drawdown, a nonprofit working toward achieving lower levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Just Salad aims to serve as the “green standard” of sustainability in the restaurant space, and has previously taken action to provide lower-impact menu choices. Last year, the brand removed grass-fed beef from its menu and replaced it with Beyond Meat’s plant-based beef alternative, which is associated with 90% lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Adds Nick Kenner, founder & CEO of Just Salad: “We see a future where the carbon footprint of food is disclosed in the same way that calories and fat are shown on a nutrition label. This would go a long way in helping people make dietary choices that support their desire to live sustainably, and could become a hallmark of the sustainability-minded restaurant of the future.”
