Head of ESG and European Business Development
Sarah Blanchard

Meet Sarah

Sarah Blanchard
As a former Head of Corporate Responsibility for one of the world’s largest wholesalers, METRO, with a turnover of €25.6B, Sarah is an expert in leading teams delivering projects on time, every time, across multiple countries and cultures. Her career has seen many highlights including consultancies and technical audits in food businesses across Europe, CIS and Russia as well as setting up the Technical Services department for the European purchasing arm of the food service company, Compass Group.

A Zimbabwean rooted and England raised food technologist, based in Germany, she has witnessed first-hand the devastation of climate change. This sensitised her to sustainability long before it became a well-known term. Sarah’s childhood was very much community focused, sharing meals at every opportunity. She knew that she wanted to have a bigger impact on the industry than simply just being a consumer and has dedicated her career to reflect this passion.

She has spent her working life examining the forces that shape our food systems through to the minute details of ecology and food science. She is a forceful advocate for learning new technologies and dissecting sustainability claims on packaged foods. Sarah believes that businesses are uniquely placed to bring about change and that being sustainable is simply doing good business. She is avid in her view that everyone should have access to affordable and sustainable foods, whilst recognising the importance of helping companies with their understanding of sustainability.

Sarah is pragmatic, questioning and persistent. An experienced practitioner at sustainability and a leader of quality, private label teams, she thrives in multi-cultural environments and is proud to have led the METRO team who developed and implemented a sustainable packaging strategy for private label and ultra-fresh for the large food wholesaler.

Having lead a research project to develop a dynamic shelf-life to prevent food waste and introduced and implemented a digital ingredients management system for private labels in over 20 countries, Sarah definitely has a knack for bringing people together because a great team creates synergy. Her teams have relentlessly pursued performance excellence, they collaborate, innovate and produce consistently superior results.

  • Sustainable food & packaging strategist
  • Expert in Food Service
  • Multi-stakeholder liaison specialist
  • Project leader in technical, quality assurance and innovation
  • Expert in supply chain standards & audits
  • Builds high-performance teams with specialised expertise
  • Project Management
Vision

“With the immense environmental and social challenges facing us, we need to share knowledge and collaborate fast to stand a chance of delivering a sustainable future.” In Sarah’s own words, “joining Prof. Consulting, just feels right! Together, we can effect change”

– Sarah Blanchard

Next

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Stuart-Burt

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Stuart

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