The Sustainability Imperative

What comes next for foodservice?

by Jillian Rodak, VP, Sustainability, Restaurants Canada

2025 was an interesting year for sustainability. The predominant message in the media was that CEOs and their investors were pulling back their resources dedicated to reducing climate change impacts, DEI initiatives, ESG reporting, and more. It felt like a perfect storm—an economic slowdown, and the Trump administration’s rollback of climate legislation—seemed to give businesses permission to deprioritize the work.

What I’ve observed is the media perpetuating a narrative that is based on partial truths. It is absolutely true that many major companies have peeled back their climate commitments or removed their DEI programs. But it’s also true that many have not. I’ve had two top Canadian executives (outside the food industry) share directly opposing views on the current global state of sustainability—proof that the answer to “What’s happening to sustainability?” is more nuanced than it seems. Still, I’d like to offer my take.

As a sustainability professional who has worked in this space for sixteen years, I’ve had a front row seat for the evolution of this field. When I left business school in 2010 with a fire in my belly to use business tools to drive progress, this thing called “sustainability” was not part of the Canadian lexicon (save for a group of folks who had already been building it out for years). My parents were concerned about what I was doing with my life because they had no idea what I was talking about when I shared my ambitions with them.

As the 2010s rolled along, momentum grew around sustainability. Millennials were asking for “eco-friendly” product choices, climate science was gaining more credibility, Europe was making headwinds with regulation, and Canada signed the Paris Agreement.

In January of 2020, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock (the world’s largest asset management firm) declared in his annual letter to CEOs that climate risk is investment risk. This 2020 letter marked a turning point for the financial industry and had a ripple effect across the corporate world. It signalled that the world’s largest asset manager was aligning its investment approach with sustainability principles, a signal that kicked the sustainability portfolio into overdrive.

For me, it meant I no longer needed to stare into blank faces when I explained my profession. Almost every large company was building out sustainability strategies, making bold commitments, and reporting on progress. Even COVID didn’t decelerate the momentum. The slowing of the world to a near stop heightened our sense that we are not fully in control of our biosphere and are more aware of the scale of human impact on our ecosystems.

Fast-forward to the beginning of 2025, and we saw the pendulum swing: rising costs, President Trump’s retreat on climate policy, regulatory complexity in Canada, increased scrutiny of the ROI for sustainability initiatives, and greenwashing fears. For many major corporations, these factors built a case for a priority shift away from sustainability. As someone very passionate about their line of work, a natural reaction to this narrative might be frustration and disdain, but actually I believe we are living in an expected—and ultimately necessary—chapter in the sustainability story.

Leaders should be scrutinizing the ROI of their investments in sustainability. CEOs ought to be thinking about sustainability as a business enabler. Executives must consider the truth behind the environmental claims they make. Sustainability can’t survive as a siloed cost centre that constantly needs to advocate for its importance. It has always needed to underpin the way we do business.

I think this moment is a reality check—both on how we got here, and on what needs to change moving forward. We’re entering a normalization period, and it will likely take a few years before sustainability feels fully “business-as-usual” again. Perhaps oddly, I find that energizing. I believe we’ll land where we need to be.

At the start of 2026, the global food system is in a highly vulnerable state. Climate change is the most significant and expansive threat to global food production systems. While the dominant approach to farming—monoculture—increases

productivity in the short term, it accelerates soil erosion and reduces system resilience, increasing dependency on global markets and vulnerability to external shocks. The full value chain of players in the food industry has begun to feel the effects of this vulnerability, from farmers to food courts. World leaders, entrepreneurs, large corporate groups, and others are working on sustainable solutions to rebuild resilient food systems, with some great innovation at play already—but more on that later.

The long-term survival of our global food system, and consequently the foodservice sector, will rely on these sustainable solutions, so this industry has little choice but to continue to invest in sustainability. Accordingly, the aforementioned “sustainability dip” has not been as prevalent in foodservice. In fact, I’ve noticed a reverse trend: many major foodservice businesses are hyper-focusing on the most material sustainability issues for their companies.

Dusting off my old consulting hat, this is precisely what I would have advised them to do. Sustainability is having an awkward coming-of-age moment—with uncertainty and some poor short-term decision-making in the mix—but we can expect a more refined, confident way of doing business on the other side.

CANADA’S POLICY LANDSCAPE

Canada’s policies on sustainability have been an important catalyst for the way restaurants are thinking about and prioritizing resources on these issues.

In the latter half of 2025, Canada’s liberal government rolled back several climate policies put in place by then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in favour of large, industrial emissions activities. Prime Minister Carney’s Climate Competitiveness Strategy aims to unite economic growth with climate action, working to position Canada as a leader in clean technology and innovation. As broad strokes are painted at the federal level,

for our members at Restaurants Canada, regulations covering plastics, recycling, and organic waste are what remain most top-of-mind.

The federal plastics ban, introduced in 2022, is now before the courts on appeal—and we’ve been waiting more than a year and a half for a decision. This decision matters because it could impact the way provinces and cities design future regulations on plastics. In the meantime, the ban holds and we are closely monitoring for a decision. The Federal Plastics Registry (FPR) is in its second reporting year, and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) announced that they will be delaying the reporting requirements for Phases 2 and 3 of the registry. Phase 1 reporting will remain in effect with an expected September deadline, and ECCC has committed to further consultation with Restaurants Canada this year on the future phases of the registry.

With extended producer responsibility (EPR) in a major transition phase for several provinces, we are working to advocate for more cost mitigation, transparency, and harmonization between regions. At the municipal level, by-laws aiming to reduce single-use items continue to arise in a variety of formats across the country. While RC’s monthly Sustainability Tracker helps members stay updated on these bylaws, we are working on approaches to keep these bylaws as consistent as possible to ease the operational challenges many restaurants are facing. Given the current climate around sustainability (pun intended) and the ever-shifting Canadian regulatory context, restaurant operators are working to prioritize the areas that will keep the lights on and guests happy.

THE FOOD SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION

I emphasized earlier the vulnerable state of our global food system, and alluded to the work underway from a cross-section of leaders to repair this vulnerability. This transformation is all about building back resilience, and it is happening in a multitude of ways.

One major priority is a focus on food loss and waste. It’s an area that’s back in full force, having taken a bit of a backseat to greenhouse gas emissions reductions over the past five years or so.

At the global level, coalitions of executives like Champions 12.3 have formed to accelerate action on food loss and waste prevention. Last November at COP30 in Brazil, the United Nations Environment Programme launched the Food Waste Breakthrough, aiming for a 50 per cent reduction in food waste by 2030.

Then, in fall 2025, the EU approved legislation introducing binding food-waste reduction targets to be met by the end of 2030—including a 30 per cent per-capita reduction across retail, restaurants, foodservice, and households, relative to the 2021–2023 average. The law will be published in the EU Official Journal, and countries will have 20 months to transpose the rules into national legislation.

Canada often looks to Europe as its north star in sustainability regulation, and I expect we will see more focus on food waste coming down our regulatory pipeline. Over the past year in Canada, the CSA Group published a draft standard on food loss and waste to create consistent guidelines across the country. This effort is complemented by the Circular Innovation Council’s recent report on organic waste diversion in Canada, which includes a focus on restaurants. 

Canadian restaurants are looking closely at their food waste impacts too. Operators have a double incentive: cutting waste directly adds back some margin while reducing unnecessary harm to the planet. Many operators are getting better at optimizing their inventory management and estimating portion sizes to prevent food waste from the outset. At Restaurants Canada, we’re seeing some members repurpose surplus foods into new menu items, or work with food rescue organizations to find a new home for food that is still safe to eat.

The momentum is clear, and I think this is great news for foodservice. I see this traction in our sector as an opportunity to demonstrate initiative and leadership, moving the needle on an area of sustainability embedded in our business that we can directly help influence.

Way up the value chain, regenerative agriculture is playing an important role in the global effort to re-build food system resilience. Regenerative agriculture is more than a buzzword—it’s a blueprint for long-term resilience in our food system. At its core, regenerative farming focuses on restoring and improving soil health through practices like reduced or no-till farming, cover cropping, and crop rotation. These methods help sequester carbon, reduce erosion, and boost biodiversity, creating healthier ecosystems that can sustain food production long-term.

Scaling these practices to meet global demand remains a challenge, but the underlying approach offers a promising path forward. For the foodservice sector, understanding this shift matters because major suppliers and brands are already investing heavily in regenerative agriculture.

McCain Foods, for example, has committed to engaging 100 per cent of its potato acreage in regenerative practices by 2030, using the McCain Regenerative Agriculture Framework. A&W Canada and Cargill have also made significant commitments through the Grazing Forward Initiative to advance regenerative practices across Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. PepsiCo, meanwhile, has set ambitious targets as part of its broader Positive Agriculture agenda.

Embedding regenerative solutions at scale will take participation from every part of the food system. For foodservice operators, sourcing already involves tough trade-offs—balancing cost with quality, logistics and values.

Some major food companies are starting to make procurement decisions with regenerative farming in mind. As that momentum builds, access and options are likely to expand for smaller operators, too. This isn’t about changing menus overnight. It’s about recognizing a shift that will shape sourcing strategies, strengthen reputations, and influence competitive advantage in the years ahead.

Sustainability isn’t disappearing — it’s evolving. Climate pressures are mounting, and regulations and consumer expectations are shifting and intensifying. For foodservice, this is both a challenge and an opportunity. For me, 2026 is about affirming foodservice’s role in the transformation of our global food system and taking action in ways that are feasible for operators.

We are in this for the long game, and I look forward to what comes next.

Have more sustainability questions? Reach out to Jillian Rodak at: JRodak@restaurantscanada.org