The Zero Carbon Forum (ZCF) has welcomed Sysco GB as its first wholesale supplier member.
In doing so, it sees the not-for-profit organisation’s collaborative model helping businesses reach net zero extended from the hospitality and brewing sectors and into the food and drink supply chain.
The Forum noted the move comes against the backdrop of extreme weather posing the biggest commercial risks to hospitality and food production firms. Record heat, flooding and droughts are already disrupting the supply chain, increasing price volatility and affecting the availability of key ingredients, it added.
According to government statistics, UK agriculture alone is estimated to lose around £1bn every year to extreme weather, while prolonged wet conditions reduced agricultural production by around 20% in 2024. Building more resilient supply chains is becoming as important as reducing emissions, said the Forum.
Its proven model has already brought together competing operators including Burger King, KFC and McDonald’s to tackle shared operational challenges. Working pre-competitively, they have reduced direct energy emissions by 52% and identified more than £5m in energy savings and strengthened business resilience.
Sysco GB is to contribute directly to the Forum’s work on supply chain resilience and decarbonisation, including the Beef Action Group, Dairy Roadmap, and menu development programmes. It will also help improve emissions data collection, support supplier engagement and share expertise in logistics, sourcing and operational efficiency.
Zero Carbon Forum founder and CEO Mark Chapman said competitors across hospitality and brewing have recognised that there is commercial value in solving industry-wide problems collectively. “The next challenge is the supply chain,” he added.
“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.”
Pete Statham, head of sustainability at Sysco Europe, said: “Joining Zero Carbon Forum allows us to support operators with the scale, data and supply chain insight needed to make meaningful, measurable progress.”
The Zero Carbon Forum is supported by UKH, BBPI and BII, and a third of the operators in the UK hospitality and brewing industry are members. It allows these to learn from each other, raise their ambition levels, and tackle the bigger challenges together.
Sysco GB is comprised of Brakes, its main broadline distribution brand, as well as a group of six speciality wholesale distribution businesses including Kent Frozen Foods, Medina Foodservice, Fresh Direct, Freshfayre, M&J Seafood, and Wild Harvest. These employ a total of 8,800 staff servicing more than 20,000 customers from 30 distribution centres across Great Britain.
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