Food Service / Restaurants

Honest Burgers sustainability score: 35/100

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About Honest Burgers

Honest Burgers is a UK-based fast-casual restaurant chain founded in 2010, operating 39+ sites across the country with an integrated butchery. The company specializes in beef burgers and has pivoted toward regenerative farming partnerships as its primary sustainability positioning, sourcing from six British farming families and local potato suppliers.

Founded 2010Head office London, United KingdomStaff ~836Revenue ~£56MWebsite ↗

Our verdict

Honest Burgers has built a genuine supply chain intervention around regenerative beef but shields itself behind unverified claims. No operational emissions data, no energy strategy, no formal targets. The company grows aggressively while claiming sustainability without the disclosure to back it.

Honest Burgers scores 35/100 (Below expectations) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Companies can never pay for anything about their own score. Last verified May 2026.

That places Honest Burgers joint 540th of 934 companies scored, and joint 21st of 51 in Food Service / Restaurants.

The ten questions

What is Honest Burgers doing well, and where does it fall short?

Strongest on Controversies & Red Flags and Nature & Biodiversity Impact (7/10, 5/10). Weakest on Carbon Footprint: Operations and Emissions Trajectory (1/10, 1/10).

What's missing

Where Honest Burgers lost points

For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.

  • Emissions from its own operations1/10No emissions figures for its own operations, not even an estimate from energy bills.
  • Emissions from its supply chain4/10Most of its supply-chain (Scope 3) emissions aren't measured.
  • Whether its emissions are falling1/10No evidence its emissions are falling, not even from energy bills or mileage.
  • How clean its energy is2/10No renewable energy tariff or major efficiency investment shown.
  • Its effect on nature5/10Its effect on nature isn't measured or independently verified.
  • How it uses materials and handles waste3/10No active waste reduction, reuse or repair shown.
  • Its effect on water2/10No monitoring of water use, or no measures to reduce it.
  • Its climate targets3/10No specific targets with dates.
  • How openly it reports3/10No published sustainability data, or no one named as responsible for it.
  • Its record on controversies7/10Points deducted for controversies or its business model. The finding is under question 10.

A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.

The calculation

How is Honest Burgers's SINK score calculated?

Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.

SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × Scale
Industry base impact
Food Service / Restaurants sector ceiling.
45 / 100
Performance score
Sum of the ten questions, each scored 0 to 10.
31 / 100
Raw score
Weighted average before scale penalty.
(0.3 × 45) + (0.7 × 31) = 35.2
Scale penalty
Multiplier based on total emissions. Bigger polluters lose more.
× 1
Final score
Rounded. Below expectations.
35 / 100
Where the evidence comes from

What evidence is Honest Burgers's score based on?

10 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.

20% of them were published by Honest Burgers itself; the rest come from independent sources.

Scored on 9 April 2026 under an earlier version of our method. We're re-checking it under the current method.

[1]Self-reported
Honest Burgers Official Website
Ongoing
Q1Q2Q4Q5Q6Q7Q8Q9
View →
[2]Public record
Honest Burgers Reports 26% Increase in Turnover
2024
Q1Q3
View →
[3]Independent source
Honest Lifts the Lid on Better Beef
Unknown
Q2Q5
View →
[4]Public record
Honest Burgers Regenerative Beef Supply Chain
Unknown
Q2Q5Q6Q8Q10
View →
[5]Public record
Honest Burgers Overhauls Supply Chain with Regenerative Farming Programme
2022
Q5Q10
View →
[6]Self-reported
Honest Farming — Honest Burgers Official
OngoingArchived copy from 2025-10-30: the original link no longer opens for us.
Q2Q4Q5Q7Q8
View →
[7]Independent source
Food Made Good Members Directory
Ongoing
Q6Q9
View →
[8]Public record
Honest Plans to Quadruple Business
Unknown
Q3
View →
[9]Public record
Technology for Marketing — Honest Burgers Profile
Unknown
Q9
View →
[10]Public record
Can Beef Ever Be Sustainable?
Unknown
Q10
View →

If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.

For Honest Burgers

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    Honest Burgers: SINK sustainability score 35/100.

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Honest Burgers in context

How does Honest Burgers compare with other food service / restaurants companies?

Where Honest Burgers sits among food service / restaurants peers.

Among the 51 major food service / restaurants brands we've scored, Honest Burgers is tied =21st of 51, with 2 others.

=21/51
Honest Burgers's rank
34
Industry average
19
Industry low
51
Industry high
See all 51 in Food Service / Restaurants →
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