Extreme weather is becoming one of the biggest commercial risks facing hospitality businesses. Record heat, flooding and drought are already disrupting food production, increasing price volatility and affecting the availability of key ingredients.
UK agriculture alone is estimated to lose around £1 billion every year to extreme weather (Defra), while prolonged wet conditions reduced agricultural production by around 20% in 2024 (UK Government).
Against this backdrop, Zero Carbon Forum has welcomed Sysco GB as its first wholesaler Supplier Member, extending the hospitality and brewing industry’s collaborative model into the food and drink supply chain at a time when droughts, flooding and heatwaves are affecting harvests, increasing price volatility and putting pressure on the availability of key ingredients.
For hospitality and brewing businesses, building more resilient supply chains is becoming as important as reducing emissions.
The move builds on the Forum’s proven model that has already brought together competing operators including Burger King, KFC and McDonald’s to tackle shared operational challenges.
Working pre-competitively through the Forum, operators have reduced direct energy emissions by 52%, identified more than £5m in energy savings and strengthened business resilience.
The Forum is now applying that same collaborative approach across the supply chain, recognising that many of the biggest climate risks facing hospitality businesses sit beyond their own operations.
For the first time, leading suppliers and wholesalers will work alongside operators to improve supply chain data, develop practical solutions and accelerate action that strengthens resilience while reducing emissions across the food and drink value chain.
Mark Chapman, Founder and CEO of Zero Carbon Forum, said:
“We’ve already proven that businesses can achieve far more when they collaborate on the challenges they all share. Competitors across hospitality and brewing have worked together through the Forum to halve direct energy emissions and save millions of pounds because they recognised there is commercial value in solving industry-wide problems collectively.
“The next challenge is the supply chain. Climate change is already affecting the food and drink operators rely on every day, creating greater volatility, increasing costs and exposing new risks. No operator can solve those challenges alone. By bringing suppliers like Sysco GB into the Forum, we’re extending that proven model of collaboration across the value chain, helping businesses build more resilient supply chains while reducing emissions through practical, shared action.”
Sysco GB will contribute directly to the Forum’s work on supply chain resilience and decarbonisation, including the Beef Action Group, Dairy Roadmap and menu development programmes. They will also help improve emissions data collection, support supplier engagement and share expertise in logistics, sourcing and operational efficiency.
Pete Statham, Head of Sustainability, Sysco Europe, said:
“Hospitality businesses are under real pressure to decarbonise while staying commercially resilient. Joining Zero Carbon Forum allows us to support operators with the scale, data and supply chain insight needed to make meaningful, measurable progress.
“No one can deliver net zero alone. By working together across the value chain, we can build a food system that is lower‑carbon, more efficient and fit for the future.”
With Sysco as a member, the Forum will help operators respond more effectively to the growing risks facing food and drink supply chains by developing practical solutions that improve resilience, reduce emissions and strengthen long-term commercial performance.
