Turn Your Dining Operations Greener by Default
Your guests, employees, and patrons want delicious, high-quality food, and your organization wants to achieve its sustainability and budget goals.
Greener by Default solves both simultaneously by making plant-based food the default while preserving full freedom of choice for diners to opt into meat and dairy. Whether you operate workplace cafeterias, stadium concessions, airport dining, or high-volume conference centers, this simple strategy nudges diners toward inclusive, low-carbon, and low-cost meals.
Greener by Default scales seamlessly across cafeterias, concessions, and high-volume dining venues.
Benefits
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People
Satisfy the demand for healthy, sustainable dining while keeping meat lovers, vegans, and flexitarians happy.
When Woodland Park Zoo introduced a balanced burger, 90% of diners stuck with it as the default burger.
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Profit
Whole, plant-based ingredients lower food costs and are less susceptible to market volatility than animal products.
Switching 1,000 servings of Beef Bolognese to Mushroom Walnut Bolognese can save over $600
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Planet
Reduce Scope 3 emissions and solidify your company’s status as a sustainability leader.
By implementing an oat milk default, LinkedIn San Francisco cut dairy milk from 70% to 18% of milk served, reducing the carbon footprint by 50%.
“We’ve always incorporated plant-forward efforts into our program, but working with GBD allowed us to take it to the next level and make plant-based offerings front and center while still preserving freedom of choice.”
- Anna Bohbot, Global Food Program Manager at LinkedIn, as quoted in VegNews Magazine
Contact us today to put your best food forward
We will provide consultation, menus and recipes, marketing and educational materials, sourcing assistance, and impact calculations.
Steps to Success
Make it Easy.
Make plant-based entrees the default option.
Design menu concepts so plant-based is the baseline. In RSVP settings, make plant-forward dishes the default meal with an easy opt-in. In ordering settings, position plant-based items as the core offering with optional meat add-on with an upcharge.
Make it Visible.
Place plant-based entrees at the beginning of the menu or buffet.
Use appealing names that describe the flavors and provenance, rather than prominently labeling a dish “vegetarian” or “low-fat.”
Make it Plentiful.
Offer varied plant-forward options across all outlets, and embrace balanced protein products across high-volume lines.
Optimize iconic menu staples by substituting a portion of animal protein with plant ingredients—like a 70/30 mushroom-beef burger blend or lentil-fortified chili. Leaning into naturally plant-forward global cuisines (Latin, Mediterranean, South Asian), you deliver craveable, familiar meals that drive immediate emission and cost reductions.
