Foodservice Cateys 2024: CSER Award – Houston & Hawkes

Judges described this year’s winner of the CSER award as the perfect combination of “head and heart”.

Having established itself as the first contract caterer to achieve B Corp status in 2022, a mere three years after the business was founded by Simon Houston and Dave Hawkes, it clearly had big ambitions to be a sustainable and socially-mindful caterer from the outset.

Despite being a boutique caterer and launching the business in the most challenging time in the sector’s history, Houston & Hawkes has continued to prioritise corporate, social and environmental responsibility, putting into effect positive change across its operations while weaving CSER into the very fabric of the business.

From sustainability initiatives to charitable endeavours, championing social projects and taking care of its own employees, Houston & Hawkes has been on quite the journey. Over the past year, the caterer has built on strategic partnerships with Magic Breakfast, through which it has funded more than 7,500 primary school breakfasts for disadvantaged children through a coffee contribution scheme, donated more than £14,000 to the Spirit of Hospitality fund, sponsored a new football kit for Woodside Kids Football Club, and sponsored a beach volleyball team captained by one of the company’s chef managers.

From a sustainability perspective, it has reduced CO2 emissions by 21% compared to the previous year through enhanced food waste controls, launched a 100% electric company car fleet and continued its hyper-local food and drink purchasing commitment – 91% of all purchases it makes are from independent suppliers within 50 miles of London.  As well as this, its plant-forward menus have been hugely successful in driving down carbon emissions while driving sales thanks to a menu carbon labelling project in partnership with Klimato.

As well as maintaining its Living Wage Foundation accreditation and being a company of 58% females, all team members have access to Hospitality Action’s Enhanced Employee Assistance Programme.

It continues to work towards ambitious targets, including rolling out carbon labelling by the end of 2024 for packaged goods and 2025 for other meals; training 10% of the business as mental health first-aiders; and reducing waste by 25% over the next three years. A reduction of scope two emissions is on track to be achieved by the end of 2024 and a programme has been rolled out to complete all scope three client assessments by the end of 2025.

These may be big targets for a boutique operation, but with the incredible list of achievements from the past year alone, the industry has no doubt it will go above and beyond if its track record is anything to go by.

What the judges said

“This submission was considered, yet exciting and inspirational, with clear examples of how
a small business can make a big impact.”

Sonia Louro

“This winner combined head and heart. The holistic focus on social and environmental factors culturally is clear and impressive-.”

Rees Bramwell

See previous winners of the award here