FSR January 2023

BehindtheScenes

structure of cities. So I think a lot of people are starting to wake up to the fact that we have to do a better job with that. One of the challenges right now is consumer educa tion, because a lot of people don’t know what to do with products, whether it’s recycla ble or not recyclable. at is something we have put a lot of effort into. Recently, we completely revamped and did an audit for all 54 of our res taurants of what is and is not acceptable in each recycling stream. We implemented new waste posters, both in Eng lish and Spanish, and shared that with our restaurants to really push and help educate our teams on what is and isn’t recyclable or compostable. What other ESG initiatives are happening at Snooze? A lot of talk in our organization is around transparency; we’re trying to find ways to share this. A phrase that I like to use is, ‘ ere are no trade secrets in saving the planet.’ We are actively looking to share this with other organizations because it really is going to take a collective effort to move the needle to where we need to be to preserve our way of life for future generations. Behind the scenes, we recently com pleted the B Impact Assessment, which is an assessment from B Lab [a global nonprofit that endows certification based on proprietary ESG standards]. We are now using that as a barome ter to shape some of our strategies mov ing forward for 2025 and 2030. So we’re really looking at a holistic approach inside the company of all different elements. We’re also exploring how we can quantify and measure impact, which is sometimes challenging when it comes to things like how something helps morale in your organization—it’s hard to quan tify that. One of the things that we’re trying to do is find ways we can quantify intangible benefits from ESG.

THROUGH ITS CHANGE MAKER PROGRAM, SNOOZE EMPOWERS ON-THE-GROUND EMPLOYEES.

CLINT HUGHEY

part of their role beyond what they do day to day. ey might be a busser, a line cook, a host, or one of our baristas. ese are people we refer to as brand cham pions. We’ve identified them as future leaders who have the potential to grow and develop into managers for the orga nization, so we’re looking to bring in dif ferent leadership development skills into this program. One of the ways they’re currently showing up is that each res taurant has a collection of community nonprofit partners that we tend to work with; one of the responsibilities of the Change Maker is to be the bridge and the connection point for those partners. How does sustainability come into play? Our landfills are in trouble—the average landfill in the country is expected to fill up in the next five to 10 years, and these are big capital expenses for the infra

COURTESY OF CLINT HUGHEY / SNOOZE / ASHLEY DAVIDSON PHOTOGRAPHY

roots, boots-on-the-ground position we have in our restaurants. Each restaurant will have at least one ‘Change Maker.’ ey take our initiatives, strategies, and goals and become the one responsible for implementing them in each of our res taurants. We’re about to launch a com pletely new training program for that position, which has been a large part of what I’ve been doing the past year. I’m working to create an updated version of our training and onboarding materials so our restaurants have the tools and resources they need to perform well in the ESG sector. Tell me about this new program. One of the main elements of this new program is the leadership development aspect of it. For most of our Change Makers, this is an additional passion

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JANUARY 2023