Anyone who has managed an event knows how quickly routines become habits, and food is not an exception. Catering is one of the most visible parts of the event experience for staff and attendees.
Yet, catering is often treated solely as an attendee experiential enhancement, rather than as one of the viable and significant opportunities to reduce the event’s overall carbon footprint.
Fortunately for event organisers, sponsors, and catering teams, it is one of the most controllable and high-impact areas for us to reduce carbon emissions, especially as clients and sponsors demand visibility into Scope 1, 2, and 3 reporting.
Drawing on TRACE catering Insights from 789 events and over 6.5 million delegates, this article highlights where catering emissions are concentrated across the protein offering and what practical changes can deliver measurable progress.
Main key data points from TRACE catering insights:
- Buffets are the largest single source of catering-related emissions, accounting for the largest share of overall impact.
- Red meat is the primary driver, responsible for 43% of catering emissions despite representing a smaller share of portions served.
- Buffet service amplifies this impact, with 51% of red meat emissions concentrated on buffet tables.
- Conferences offer the highest-leverage opportunity for change, with nearly 73% of buffets held there.
- Staff meals are an overlooked area, with staff consuming more beef at lunch than attendees, making back-of-house catering a practical place to start.
- Lower-carbon catering options, such as plant-based meals, still face adoption barriers. Organisers cite delegate and client expectations as the main blockers to fully plant-based menus.
Solution: how event organisers can reduce catering emissions without removing choice
Reducing catering emissions does not require an all-or-nothing shift. The most effective approaches are incremental, familiar, and evidence-based. Here are three strategies event organisers and leaders can implement to reduce food-related emissions.
- Don’t overlook staff catering: Apply low-carbon defaults to staff meals too. TRACE data show staff catering skews more red-meat-heavy than audience menus, with over two-thirds of beef servings consumed by staff. Shifting back-of-house catering is a practical, often overlooked way to reduce overall event catering emissions.
- Reduce red meat’s impact without removing attendee choice: If full removal of red meat feels unrealistic, focus on reduction first. Serve it in smaller portions, such as canapes, or adopt blended recipes such as Levy’s introduction of a “50:50” burger (half beef, half mushroom) – the outcome being a 71.5% reduction in burger emissions. With beef prices increasing year on year these approaches can help deliver meaningful cost savings alongside emissions reductions.
- Describe dishes by flavour and direct with simplicity, not labels: MIT research suggests consumers are less likely to choose plant-based options when explicitly labelled “vegan”, so focusing on flavour and familiarity can be more effective. Additionally, adding simple menu signposting cues can shift behaviour and encourage diners to select options they wouldn’t have previously chosen, as one study shows.
How data helps event teams measure, innovate and reduce emissions in their food service
You cannot reduce what you cannot measure. These catering insights show a clear opportunity: by measuring emissions at the protein level, event teams can identify the highest-impact changes and track progress with confidence.
Lime Venue Portfolio used TRACE to understand its catering footprint, then shifted to fully plant-based meals and canapés during activations, limiting catering-related emissions to just 14.7% of its total event footprint.
With this clear data in place, they are now prepared to build on that progress by targeting staff red meat intake in the future.
Convincing event leadership: The business case for measured, plant-forward catering at events
Opting for a plant-forward menu at your events can be positioned as a strategic business decision, not only to reduce emissions but also to save money.
Red meat is one of the highest-impact ingredients in event catering emissions, and TRACE data shows it accounts for a disproportionate share of the catering footprint despite representing a smaller share of portions served.
When it comes to pricing, beef prices have been rising year on year. US prices have increased by more than 50% over the past decade, amplified by supply pressures and climate-related disruption.
This points to beef being an ingredient that is not only high in cost and emissions, but also steeped in volatility, making it a significant risk for events operating under tight budgets.
Reducing your event menu’s reliance on beef could, in theory, improve cost stability while lowering emissions (see page 16 of isla’s 2025 Temperature Check Report Europe for real life data examples).
On top of this, companies working towards Scope 1, 2 and 3 targets are increasingly under scrutiny, including mandatory Scope 3 reporting requirements in some regions. Clients, sponsors and leadership expect measurable progress, not just broad sustainability claims.
This is where emissions measurement becomes business critical. TRACE helps organisers quantify catering emissions, identify hotspots such as red meat, and benchmark reduction efforts year on year.
With defensible data aligned to recognised frameworks such as the GHG Protocol and GRI, plant-forward decisions become easier to justify internally as cost-aware, de-risked plans that support Net Zero goals.
If your team is unsure where to begin with your measurement journey, even beyond catering, our new free Event Carbon Measurement Starter Pack (created with IMEX) offers a clear introduction to measuring event emissions and identifying reduction opportunities.
See how TRACE can help your business measure, benchmark and reduce catering emissions. Request a demo.
