Data, Decisions, and Decarbonisation: 3 Key Takeaways from Anya Doherty’s BMO Podcast Interview

How do we transform the global food system from a major driver of climate change into a fundamental part of the solution? Foodsteps founder Anya Doherty recently joined Emily Hobbs on BMO’s Sustainability Leaders podcast to discuss exactly that.  

Reflecting on Foodsteps’ journey helping some of the world's biggest food businesses, Anya shared crucial insights into how data and transparency is reshaping the food industry.  

Here are three key takeaways from the conversation on how data turns sustainability from a corporate burden into a commercial advantage.

1. Unpacking Supply Chain Complexity (The Story of the Basa Fish)

Modern supply chains are incredibly complex, and businesses often aren't aware of the full story. While untangling the complicated web of a food supply chain remains a massive challenge, the tools exist to help business really get under the hood, yielding insightful – and often unexpected – results.  

Anya highlighted a UK recipe box company that purchases Basa fish from Vietnam. By using Foodsteps to trace the carbon footprint, the team were able to go a level deeper, investigating the actual fish feed. They discovered that the feed relied on soy and rice imported from countries as far as Brazil, Indonesia, and Thailand, before eventually moving to Vietnam, and finally, the UK. This exercise not only map supply chain emissions, but gave the business a vital roadmap to monitor geopolitical and climate volatility across multiple continents.  

2. Verifying the Regenerative Premium with Wildfarmed

For disruptive brands that are constantly pushing boundaries, success relies on the ability to tell your story. Foodsteps has been a long-term partner to Wildfarmed, a UK regenerative wheat supplier implementing nature-friendly practices, like fewer chemicals and mechanical tilling and the use of cover crops.

While Wildfarmed knew their methods were better for the planet, they needed a way to verify it in the market. Using Foodsteps data and tools, Wildfarmed calculated their carbon footprint, and discovered that it had a 50% lower footprint than conventionally grown alternatives. This verified data enabled a major Italian restaurant chain to confidently adopt Wildfarmed flour for their pizzas and pastas, reducing their own Scope 3 emissions while telling a powerful story to consumers.  

3. Sustainability and Profitability Aren't Mutually Exclusive

The most significant myth in the industry is that sustainability must come at a financial cost. "So often sustainability and commerciality are pitted against each other," Anya noted. But this is not the reality reflect in businesses that take sustainability seriously.  

Cost of living and price volatility are critical factors for food businesses – and in some cases, those considerations can slow down progress on sustainability. But many businesses are realising that price volatility is often directly tied to changes in climate and weather patterns, and that investing in sustainability now is in fact a long-term investment in the resilience of your business.

By using data to look at both impact and climate risk, businesses can make smarter decisions for the planet – and their bottom line. Our long-term partner, Compass Group, used Foodsteps data to reformulate a best-selling spaghetti bolognese. The result was a 25% reduction in carbon impact alongside an 18% increase in profit margin. Those are numbers everyone can celebrate.

Achieving a sustainable food system is never an all-or-nothing challenge, but it does require us to start somewhere. By trading assumptions for audit-grade data, food businesses can begin to see climate action as the foundation of commercial resilience.

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