Foda benchmarks FAQ
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Foda Benchmarks is a short questionnaire that gives food and beverage operators a clear picture of how their venue performs financially and operationally compared with comparable businesses across Australia and New Zealand.
Built from 1000+ operators and analysis of $1.97B in hospitality sales, the benchmark behind your report is drawn from real operator data. Based on your answers, you'll receive a personalised report showing where your venue sits on a financial productivity and operational footprint matrix, and a prioritised set of actions specific to your position.
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The tool is built for food and beverage operators, cafes, restaurants, bars, takeaway venues, and pubs, regardless of size. It is designed to be useful whether you run a single-location venue or a multi-site operation.
You don't need any specialist knowledge or technical background to complete it. If you can describe how your venue operates, the tool will do the rest.
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No, and that's intentional. Foda Index is a high-level benchmarking tool, not a formal carbon audit or comprehensive emissions assessment. Think of it as a starting point, it will give you an indicative picture of your financial performance and operational footprint, help you identify the biggest opportunities, and provide a foundation for more detailed work if you choose to go further. It's designed to be useful on day one, not after months of data collection.
about the survey
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Around 3–5 minutes. The survey has two parts. The first page asks for seven direct inputs about your venue: business name, venue type, location, floor area, annual turnover, approximate FTE & seating capacity. The second page has up to 15 yes/no/don't know questions and 2 questions where we ask for an approximate value. Most questions can be answered from general knowledge of how your venue operates.
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Very little. You'll need:
• A sense of your annual revenue.
• Your venue's floor area in m² (trading space, kitchen, and front of house).
• General knowledge of how your kitchen and service model work.
No utility bills, invoices, or technical documents are required. The more accurate the responses you give, the more accurate the report will be.
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No. We ask for a broad revenue range, not profit figures or any financial account details. The range is used purely to size your benchmark appropriately. See our Privacy Policy and Data Security Policy for full details on how your data is handled.
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We prioritise data security and privacy through industry best practices and compliance with relevant data protection standards. Our commitment ensures confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your operational and supply chain data throughout our assessment and consulting processes.
Your Report
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Your report will be emailed to you within 2 business days of completing the survey.
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Your report is built around a matrix that maps your venue's financial productivity (revenue per m²) against its operational footprint. Where you land tells a specific story, whether your focus should be on protecting and growing performance, reducing the operational load that is limiting your profitability, or both.
The report has four parts:
• Financial productivity benchmark how your revenue per m² compares to similar venues. This tells you whether you're extracting strong value from your space or whether there's room to improve.
• Operational footprint an indicative view of your venue's annual emissions, broken down by Scope 1 (direct, e.g. gas), Scope 2 (electricity), and Scope 3 (supply chain and waste). You'll see where your footprint is concentrated and how it compares to industry benchmarks.
• Priority actions the specific levers most likely to improve your financial performance and reduce your operational footprint, based directly on your survey responses and your quadrant position.
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Your report is an informed estimate, not a certified emissions statement. Its accuracy depends partly on how precisely you answered the survey questions. Where you answered Yes or No with confidence, the model applies adjustments specific to your operation. Where you selected Don't Know, we've used industry averages. These are reasonable assumptions but they're not tailored to you. Your report will clearly flag any areas where a Don't Know answer has been used and what resolving it would change.
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No. The Foda Index report is designed to inform internal decision-making and strategy. It is not a verified carbon inventory and should not be represented as one to customers, investors, or regulatory bodies.
If you need a verified emissions statement, for example, for a tender, a lease requirement, or a formal public disclosure, Foda Strategy can conduct a carbon assessment as the appropriate next step.
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Read it with your most operational hat on. The most useful starting question is: which of these actions could I actually do something about in the next six months?
You don't need to tackle everything at once. The report is designed to help you prioritise, start with the actions that score highest on both financial impact and footprint reduction, and go from there.
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A carbon footprint is the total volume of greenhouse gas emissions associated with your operation, measured in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (tCO₂e). The 'equivalent' part means it captures all greenhouse gases, not just CO₂, converted to a single comparable unit. For most food and beverage venues, the largest share of emissions comes not from energy use but from the supply chain, particularly the food and ingredients you purchase and what you waste.
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These are the three categories used to classify where emissions come from:
• Scope 1 direct emissions from sources you own or control. In a venue context, this primarily refers to gas used for cooking and heating, and to refrigerant leakage from cool rooms and display fridges.
• Scope 2 indirect emissions from the electricity you purchase. The amount depends on how much electricity you use and the grid’s emissions intensity in your area.
• Scope 3 everything else in your value chain. For food and beverage operators, this is typically the largest category, covering the ingredients you buy, packaging, food waste sent to landfill, and supplier transport.
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Because producing food, especially traditional animal products, is emissions-intensive. Growing, processing, and transporting ingredients generate significant greenhouse gas emissions long before anything arrives in your kitchen. For most food service venues, supply chain emissions (Scope 3) account for 70–90% of total emissions. This is why menu composition and sourcing decisions are among the highest-leverage actions available. A simpler, better-calibrated menu typically reduces both procurement cost and operational footprint simultaneously, often without any reduction in revenue.
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The report is a starting point, not an endpoint. If you want to build a detailed emissions baseline, verify your numbers, or develop a formal action plan, we offer a paid follow-up engagement that takes you through that process.
Understanding The Numbers?
Still have a question not answered here? Get in touch at hello@fodastrategy.com