Whether a business takes into account sustainability and being eco-friendly are two
important issues for many consumers today who may consider it when making their
purchases. As a result, many companies will make token gestures towards being sustainable
such as removing straws but not doing anything about the rest of their plastic waste, and
other such measures. Pret-a-Manger claims to do things a little differently – here’s how.

They have implemented a number of initiatives to improve their sustainability model, to
tackle issues such as recycleability of plastics, social welfare, and their impact on the
environment. One of their initiatives is the Global Plastic Pledge, which involves giving
customers a discount from their drink if they bring in their own reusable coffee cup. In the
UK this amounts to a 50p refund on your order, and it’s something they do in all of their
stores globally. They started off at a lower amount, but were willing to increase it and cut
into their profit to promote the initiative.

They have also pledged to reduce their plastic usage, by introducing widely-recyclable
plastics which are also compostable or reusable. They will also be reducing their usage of
single-usage plastic, such as by removing plastic straws from drinks and replacing them with
paper straws, and replacing disposable plastic cutlery with biodegradable cutlery. These
changes increase sustainability across the whole chain, and were implemented even before
the EU voted to remove them from the European economy.

Pret-a-Manger also implements measures that don’t necessarily create environmental
responsibility and sustainability, but which foster a certain level of social support. One
example is that it gives away its unsold food to the homeless population through donations
to local foodbanks for instance, and also has committed to using cruelty-free meat products
from an ethical supply chain. The chickens and eggs that are in their products are free-
range, and they use grass-fed beef – so all of their meat choices are more ethical than you
might find in other sandwich and coffee chains.

Pret have also started a number of purely-vegetarian outlets, called Veggie Pret. These
outlets only serve plant-based products and nothing in them contains meat. Although not a
sustainability issue by itself, it is arguably a more sustainable practise to use no meat
products – and in addition to all of their food sustainability, their most basic product, coffee,
is sustainably and organically grown. If nothing else, it does show that the brand listens to
what consumers want, and took on board recommendations from its own customers.

Although like many brands Pret-a-Manger surely has some issues with sustainability, it
definitely goes the extra mile to ensure that it produces as little waste as possible and to
ensure that it commits to its own sustainability goals. Of course, as most of this is centred
on Pret UK, it depends on each branch in its locations abroad to ensure that these
sustainability goals are followed even in other countries. It still shows dedication from head
office to follow sustainable guidelines when possible.