Sustainability
Sustainable food comes from more than just compostable containers and recycling.
Big Wheel Burger was founded on the idea that FAST food didn’t have to mean JUNK food. We’ve put thought into every step, from what we serve our customers, to how we run our shops and how we impact the environment and local communities.
Carbon Neutral From the Start, now Biosphere Certified
Big Wheel Burger is proud to be Canada’s first carbon neutral fast food restaurant. Each year, we measure our greenhouse gas emissions with Synergy as part of the Climate Action Partner Program. This program guides us to transparently share our climate commitments, action plan, GHG emissions, and the projects we support. The GHG emissions we couldn't reduce, we offset. From 2011 to 2025, we offset our carbon footprint by supporting the Great Bear Forest Carbon Project through Ostrom Climate and other impactful projects, accounting for a total of 2,875 tonnes of offsets supported in 13 years (the same as 6,300 one-way flights from Vancouver to Toronto!). Since then, technology has advanced and the economy is catching up. To push the envelope even further, we are shifting our efforts to further decarbonizing our restaurant operations and supply chain. Our goal is to reduce our carbon footprint by an additional 40% by 2035 (compared to 2024 levels). Big Wheel Burger is also the first restaurant in North America to be Biosphere Certified. Biosphere is an internationally recognized certification program that empowers businesses and organizations to embrace sustainability, ensuring they play a vital role in preserving the planet and helping to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. This program looks at environmental action, community wellbeing, and critical global issues such as supporting Zero Hunger and Gender Equality. For us, this means recognizing the important role every business can play, in making the world a better place.
100% Compostable Packaging
Our customer area is 100% trash free since all of our packaging is completely compostable. Composting keeps our landfills from piling up and prevents unnecessary methane, a greenhouse gas, from being released into our environment.
We divert a minimum of 98% of our waste, recycling soft plastics, cartons, styrofoam and other items that are typically thrown out.
We print your receipt on EcoChit paper (phenol free, 100% recyclable and responsibly sourced paper).
Soil to Feed our FED Garden
All of those wrappers, plates and food scraps are turned into high-quality compost for our FED garden. We partner with FED Urban Agriculture, a charity working on food security and hyper-sustainably growth food. We serve their delicious greens, and we help fund their community programs.
FED Gardens Growing Edible Plants
The compost created from diverting our restaurants’ waste is turned into high-quality compost for our community gardens. These gardens provide green space, opportunities for youth to learn about growing food, and the vegetables even get used in our kitchens!
Fridges to fryers
Our kitchens are furnished with high-efficiency appliances, from our fridges to our fryers. Not to mention the used oil from our restaurants is converted into biodiesel.
our E-van delivers throughout Victoria AND saves 2.2 TCo2!!
Waste Management
- All packaging materials are 100% compostable
- Trash free customer area = No landfill waste
- Less than 1% of waste ends up in landfill
Emissions Management
- Canada’s first carbon neutral fast food restaurant
- Through composting and recycling programs we avoided 74 tonnes of carbon in our first year of operation alone!
- We offset any remaining carbon emissions by investing projects that have real and measurable emissions reduction
Community Engagement
- Big Wheel Burger staff are trained about restaurant sustainability
- We work with Synergy to audit our practices
- We partner with FED Society, an initiative to increase food sustainability awareness
Restaurant Design
- We furnish our kitchen with Energy Star appliances, efficient fryers and dishwashers to keep energy consumption to a minimum
- We use recycled or salvaged materials wherever possible in our customer area
- From the heaters to lighting, sustainability and the environment are taken into consideration every step of the way