Now that you have access to your My Emissions platform, it's time to dig deeper into the data - and start making real change.
This guide will walk you through how to:
Identify where you can reduce emissions most effectively
Use platform features like Ingredient Breakdowns, Insights, Collections, and Comparisons
Start taking action and communicate your progress across campus
🔍 1. Spot High-Impact Areas First
Sorting by Carbon Intensity in your Products list.
The best place to start is by identifying ingredients and dishes with the highest carbon intensity (CO₂e per kg of food) or total emissions. These are your priority areas for change.
Common high-impact items include:
Beef, lamb, and some seafood dishes
Cheese-heavy recipes and confectionery with chocolate or coffee
To-go items with heavy packaging (glass bottles, plastic containers, etc.)
📊 Use your Products or Ingredients lists to:
Sort by carbon intensity (kgCO₂e per kg)
Sort by total emissions (based on serving size)
Identify which recipes or products are driving most of your footprint
Tip: Use Collections to group recipes by menu, event, or site to easily analyse emissions across different areas of your operation.
📊 2. Ingredient Breakdown: What Drives Emissions
Seeing the full ingredient breakdown of a Spaghetti Bolognese.
Every product detail page includes a breakdown of emissions by ingredient, as well as by lifecycle stage (farming, processing, packaging, transport).
This shows you:
Which individual ingredients contribute the most to a recipe's total emissions
What part of the supply chain the emissions come from
Example:
🍝 In a Spaghetti Bolognese, beef mince may contribute over 90% of the total carbon footprint. Swapping or reducing just that ingredient can drastically cut emissions.
You can use this view to:
Justify ingredient swaps (e.g. beef → chicken or lentils)
Adjust quantities or blends
Plan procurement improvements (e.g. lower-impact versions of a key ingredient)
🔄 3. Try Small Swaps for Big Reductions
Comparing similar dishes in the platform, using the Comparisons tool.
You don’t need to overhaul your entire menu. Simple changes can cut emissions by 30–80%:
Swap beef for chicken, pork, or lentil-based options
Use plant-based milk in drinks
Lighten up cheese-heavy recipes
🧪 Use the Recipe Editor to test these changes in real time.
🆚 Use the Comparison Tool to view similar recipes side-by-side and compare their carbon footprints.
📚 4. Ingredient Insights: Understand the Research Behind the Numbers
Understanding the emissions sources from chicken meat.
Want to know why an ingredient has a high footprint? Head to the Ingredients > Insights section for detailed emissions explanations.
This helps:
Answer questions from students or colleagues about why a rating is what it is
Improve confidence in sustainability decisions
Support educational or communication materials
💡 Note: Insights reflect global average data and are based on third-party emissions factors, not your own sourcing.
📉 5. Adjust Portions & Promote Lower-Carbon Options
Adjusting ingredient ratios, especially for high-emission foods, can add up when scaled across your menu.
Try:
Using meat-veg blends (e.g. ground beef + beans = ~30% reduction)
Scaling changes across similar dishes
Highlighting A or B rated options across menus
📣 Promote your success with:
Carbon-labelled menus
“Low Carbon Lunch” campaigns
Screen signage and internal comms
Carbon labelled lunch menu.
📬 6. Communicate Your Progress
Engaging your wider community helps your efforts go further. My Emissions provides:
Menu-ready carbon labels
Canva template for carbon labelled menus
Pre-written student FAQs
Need some inspo? Read this article.
🎓 Real-World Example: UMass Dining
UMass Dining used My Emissions to:
Identify top-emission recipes
Make targeted ingredient swaps
Communicate carbon impact across their campuses
They achieved a 3.59% reduction in food-related emissions in one term.
📖 [Read the full case study → https://myemissions.co/articles/umass-dining-case-study-carbon-ratings-reduce-emissions/]