Simply Lunch is one of the UK’s leading food to go manufacturers, producing more than 25 million sandwiches, wraps, salads, and hot meals each year. They have worked with My Emissions since 2022 to report and reduce their carbon footprint.
In their latest Impact Report, Simply Lunch have reported a 10.4% reduction in carbon intensity*. This case study shows they achieved that.
The Problem
As Simply Lunch strengthened its sustainability commitments while continuing to grow, three challenges became clear.
First, they needed to publish a carbon footprint that would stand up to scrutiny. Auditors and customers were increasingly asking for detailed emissions disclosures. The priority was a reporting framework that was robust, repeatable, and defensible.
Second, growth made comparability harder. As production increased and new machinery was introduced, total emissions were expected to increase. Without consistent intensity metrics, it was impossible to separate emissions driven by volume growth from genuine efficiency gains or changes in product mix.
Third, sustainability needed to move beyond compliance. Simply Lunch wanted carbon data to inform procurement and NPD decisions, not just sit in an annual report. Emissions had to be visible at ingredient and product level, enabling reformulation, supplier conversations, and eventually carbon labelling for customers.
Across all of this was a practical constraint. Any solution had to integrate with existing procurement and production systems. Sustainability could not create additional manual work or slow down a fast moving manufacturing operation.
Solution: Turning carbon data into commercial insight
Simply Lunch has worked with My Emissions since 2022 to understand and reduce their carbon footprint.
As a starting point, Simply Lunch used the My Emissions platform to measure the carbon footprint of every product SKU. Carbon has been embedded into Simply Lunch’s product development, range reviews and commercial decision-making, in order to reduce emissions.
Over the past 2 years, specific changes included:
- Reformulating existing recipes to reduce reliance on high-impact ingredients.
- Removing certain products from Simply Lunch-branded ranges where carbon intensity could not be sufficiently reduced.
- Expanding plant-based and lower-impact options across core categories.
Simply Lunch go one step further and have added the My Emissions carbon label to many products across their ranges. This aligns with growing customer demand for sustainability transparency.
Simply Lunch then also uses My Emissions to calculate their annual Company Carbon Footprint, including relevant Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. This allows them to track progress over time, which they’ve published in their FY 24/25 Impact Report.
Results: a 10.4% reduction in food and drink carbon intensity
Simply Lunch has published an Impact Report for FY24/25, highlighting their positive impact in the year.
Total emissions did increase in FY24/25, but that was expected as Simply Lunch has significantly grown its business. A better measure is to look at the carbon intensity* of purchased food and drink, which measures emissions per kg of food.
Looking at carbon intensity, Simply Lunch reduced the emissions per kg of purchased food and drink from 2.79 kgCO2e to 2.50 kgCO2e. That represents a 10.4% reduction in just one year!
The shift is visible in purchasing data. A-rated ingredients, the lowest carbon category, increased from 58% to 63% of total purchases. E rated items fell from 14% to 11%. This demonstrates a consistent move away from the most carbon intensive inputs.
The report provides a transparent baseline for future reduction targets and supports conversations with customers, investors, and retail partners who increasingly expect detailed emissions data as part of tenders and annual reviews.
From measurement to meaningful impact
For Simply Lunch, carbon data now sits at the heart of commercial decision making. Product development, procurement, and reporting all draw from the same consistent dataset.
The 10.4% reduction was driven by deliberate ingredient choices, supplier decisions, and reformulation, supported by clear visibility at product level. That same data feeds directly into customer impact reporting, providing transparent evidence of progress year after year.
With a strong baseline and repeatable reporting in place, Simply Lunch is well positioned to keep reducing emissions as the business grows and to demonstrate credible progress on its path to net zero by 2040.
*We measured Carbon Intensity as the emissions per kg of purchased food & drink. This allows us to compare emissions across years, even though the volume of purchased goods increased significantly.
