Dina Foods – Better Futures

Dina Foods is an artisan producer of specialist Mediterranean foods including a variety of flatbreads, confectionery and savoury products. They supply major food and retail outlets throughout the UK and Europe, while manufacturing their goods locally in several facilities across London.

Their Pledge:

To reduce 50% of their baseline carbon emissions by 2025 and reach net zero by 2030.

The Industry’s Impact Opportunity – Environmental, Ethical and Financial

Over a third of all food produced globally goes to waste and contributes 8-10% of man-made greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter after China and the USA.

In the UK, 1.85 million tonnes of food is wasted during processing alone, usually due to strict cosmetic requirements from customers, e.g. it looks ‘odd’. (WRAP)

Conventional farming that uses synthetic fertilisers and pesticides can reduce soil fertility, release toxic chemicals and emit gasses like nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 39 million hectares of soil are degraded each year globally – an area the size of Zimbabwe. (CEMF)

Conventional farming methods use up approximately 70% of all global freshwater. (AQUASTAT)

Dina’s Net Zero Journey

The Sustainable Restaurant Association and Think! Hospitality were selected to help Dina Foods create their net-zero plan.

Their Net Zero strategy includes five key areas:

Procurement

The biggest source of emissions comes from Dina’s food procurement at 75% of their total footprint. Within that, dairy ingredients account for nearly 30% their total carbon related to food and 10% of the total carbon footprint.

Dina Foods will analyse the supply chain for ingredients that can be sourced closer to home and expand the use of certified foods to other categories. Dina Foods already uses only certified UTZ chocolate which shows a commitment to more sustainable farming with better opportunities for farmers, their families and the

Waste and Recycling

No waste to landfill; bakery waste converted to animal feed and energy. An approximate saving of 38 tonnes of CO2 e per year.

Dina Foods produces around 31 tonnes of waste annually. 12% is recycled and the rest is combusted for energy. Furthermore, Dina Foods will:

Require commitments from suppliers to reduce packaging to cut down on waste.
Conduct staff training to ensure waste is being effectively sorted.
Conduct waste audits to see how waste streams can be optimised.
Segregate food waste in all kitchen and canteen areas and ensure recycling within their HQ.
Build a roadmap towards eliminating single use items and work with suppliers to create novel ways to keep product quality while reducing waste.

Transport

Dina Foods has a small fleet of company vehicles made up of mostly diesel and some hybrid vehicles. The majority of employees commute by bus, while approx. 25% walk or cycle. Company vehicles are responsible for 43 tonnes of CO2e while staff commuting is responsible for another 66
tonnes including two to three trips to European food conventions each year.

Dina Foods will convert fleet to electric vehicles and upgrade their internal green policies to ask staff to commit to commuting by walking, cycling or public transport.

Energy

The largest contributor to Dina’s energy emissions is gas, accounting for over 80%, as this is used to heat the ovens in the bakery.

Dina Foods will switch to a green gas tariff that puts profits into renewables to help offset emissions from the Bakery and switch to LED lighting throughout the business tor reduce emissions and save on energy bills.

Packaging

Dina Foods uses 46 tonnes of plastic packaging annually.

Dina Foods will:

work with suppliers to increase the amount of recycled product in the packaging.
explore non-plastic materials for packaging where possible and use Tesco’s UK packaging and Formats Guidelines 2021 to conduct an audit of the packaging materials

“We are only at the very start of an exciting journey with Better Futures+, which has helped equip us with the tools to assess our carbon footprint, and through the educational input and work with our consultants we will always look at ways in which we can reduce it moving forwards.”

Wilda Haddad

Project Director