Food for Thought

Here’s something to chew on: Since introducing a new lunch program at all New York City Public Schools, the district’s overall carbon emissions have dropped by up to 42 percent.

The key ingredient? Plant-based entrees.

The NYC program is one of the biggest success stories for Humane World for Animals — formerly the Humane Society of the U.S. — initiative designed to provide healthier meals, protect the environment and reduce the number of animal-based products used in the food system. Through collaborations with schools, universities and food service management companies, the initiative helps institutions implement healthy and delicious dining alternatives that reduce reliance upon animal-based foods.

How do they know it’s working? That’s where WSP enters the picture. Humane World for Animals partnered with us to provide critical carbon footprint and scenario analyses, producing measurable data that demonstrates the significant impact that transition to plant-based foods has on the environment.

“While on the surface this may seem like an odd collaboration, WSP has been doing food purchase carbon footprint work for many years, including analysis for Humane World for Animals on similar projects,” said Isaac Emery, project director in the Sustainability, Environment and Climate Change program at WSP in the U.S.

“Over the past several years, our team has developed its own data set for evaluating foods commonly purchased by cafeterias and school district organizations,” he added. “That data allows us to quickly run assessments that would otherwise be complicated, and replicate this work as needed.”

In 2019, Meatless Monday was introduced in the New York schools, followed by Plant-Powered Fridays in 2022, as a pilot initiative by the New York City Department of Education’s Office of Food and Nutrition Services (OFNS) where traditional menu items in the school cafeterias were replaced with nutritious plant-based meal options.

WSP didn’t offer recipe advice — that responsibility wisely remained with the district’s chefs and nutritionists — but we were instrumental in helping them identify which ingredients are low-carbon and more environmentally sustainable

Take pizza, for example.

“We all know that pizza is incredibly important to kids and there are a lot of different ways to make it, so there isn’t one pizza carbon footprint factor we can apply,” Emery said. “The school’s nutritionists provided us with their top pizza recipes, and we identified each ingredient needed for those recipes.”

WSP then provided analysis that measured the impact of using plant-based ingredients in place of animal-based ingredients that would lower the school district’s carbon footprint.

“We have built several custom assessment tools for Humane World for Animals that lets their team look at how they can improve their carbon footprint if they trade one protein source for another,” Emery said.

The overwhelming success of the program was confirmed by a report released in late 2024. The New York City Public Schools program used data from October 2018 as the baseline for measuring the impact of the changes. It analyzed greenhouse gas, water and land savings from Plant-Powered Fridays menus and recipes using data from October 2018 and October 2022. The study revealed that New York City Public Schools reduced its carbon and water footprints from animal products by up to 40 percent, and the land footprint from animal products by up to 50 percent.

“It is one of the most dramatic shifts in food purchases at a cafeteria organization that I have seen in my six years of doing this,” Emery said. “It demonstrated how a shift towards more plant-based proteins will create a dramatic reduction in the carbon footprints, the water footprints and the amount of land needed to produce the food for New York City public schools.”

The NYC OFNS was committed to serving more sustainable and healthy meals, but menu changes were not always easy. It took time, careful planning and the dedication of their leadership team and staff to succeed.

Every day there is a different vegetarian or vegan entrée to enjoy, including pizza, bean tacos, veggie nuggets or southwest burritos. Alternatively, there are daily options like peanut butter/sunflower seed butter and jelly sandwiches or a salad bar, along with fruits and vegetables as side items.

Today the program has expanded to offer plant-based meals every day. They haven’t gone cold turkey: Meat-based options are still offered to students on Mondays through Thursday. But Plant-Powered Friday continues to thrive, offering vegan and vegetarian entrees exclusively. And the kids don’t seem to mind.

“The response from the New York City School Administration and administrative community has been very strong,” Emery said. “Leadership and staff have put a lot of work into this program over the last three-plus years, and for parents and students to see the evidence of how much these menu choices have mattered has been influential to encourage the program to continue.”

Today it’s no longer a pilot; for New York Public Schools, plant-based food is simply business as usual.

Over the years Humane World for Animals has contracted our services for numerous similar projects involving organizations that serve food and are concerned about their carbon emissions.

“If they want help developing a plant-forward menu, Humane World for Animals is a great partner and offers a lot of services,” Emery said. “And when that organization pledges to improve its plant-based food offerings by signing the Forward Food Pledge, it can also gain a food carbon footprint analysis from WSP.”

Our firm has resources in place that have proven successful for any organization looking to reduce its carbon emissions through smarter food purchasing. Whether it’s starting a new program, improving an existing program or analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of that program, WSP and Humane World for Animals are finding ways to help them make impactful changes.

“In the grand scope of things, our Humane World for Animals projects may appear small,” Emery said. “But I can’t express enough how enjoyable it has been to be able to make such a big impact.”