Recent trends in sustainability in the restaurant industry
Recent trends have pushed many businesses to implement sustainable policies and practices. In studying sustainability in the restaurant sector, the main items that are often affected include energy and water, food waste management, and effects of products on different habitats. Some of the opponents of continued revolution of sustainability in business often base their arguments on high the short-term costs. However, it is important to analyze the effects of increased adoption of sustainability in businesses on long-term costs. In this analysis, the focus will be on multiple literature relating to the restaurant industry.
The impact of sustainable practices on energy and water bills
One major cost that many enterprises in the restaurant industry incur is the energy and water bills. Ali et al. (2008) cite that the main uses of energy in many hotels and restaurants are through electrical and thermal energies to provide lighting, air conditioning and hot water in kitchen and guest rooms. The adoption of sustainable practices through efficient appliances and better construction of buildings to reduce energy footprint leads to reduced consumption of energy, lower costs, increased competitiveness, and increased customer loyalty. According to Baldwin, Wilberforce and Kapur (2011), consumer choice of restaurant is often influenced by the efforts of a restaurant to conserve energy with 44% of the consumers continuously favoring energy efficient restaurants. Furthermore, Revell and Blackburn (2007) state that government efforts in the UK to increase sustainability in these SME restaurants are often based on the main message that lower costs to be achieved through energy savings contribute to an increase in 20% profitability. Evidently, sustainable practices in the restaurant industry involve energy savings and such savings lead to lower long-term costs in energy bills buffered by increased revenue from better consumer perception and government support.
Effective food waste management for cost savings
The other area that most restaurants can make savings in the restaurant industry through sustainable practices is effective food waste management. According to the report by Papargyropoulou et al. (2014), about one third of all edible parts of food produced globally are wasted in the supply chain. Furthermore, Bloom (2010) indicates that diners often leave about 17% of food ordered uneaten. Consequently, restaurants incur not only unnecessarily higher costs in the purchases of foods but also in the management of such wastes such as operation fees of the different landfills. Kallbekken and Sælen (2013) propose the reduction of plate sizes and the adoption of buffet method of serving with encouragement for more helpings to reduce food waste. Such a proposal leads to preparation of smaller quantities of food while achieving psychological satisfaction of consumers hence long-term savings in food purchases. Additionally, restaurants can opt to convert their food wastes into energy through methods such as anaerobic digestion. According to Iacovidou, Ohandja and Voulvoulis (2012) and Pham et al. (2015), restaurants can avoid landfills that result in the increased production of methane into the atmosphere through controlled anaerobic digestion. While the initial costs of setting up the bio digesters are high, the long-term benefits of alternative energy from wastes and the sale of valuable fertilizer from the digestion offset the short-term costs and lead to an increase in profitability.
Reducing the impact on natural habitats through sustainable measures
The increased adoption of sustainability by restaurants is also influenced by the effects of the restaurant industry on natural habitats, especially from the single-use plastics. Plastics use in hotels is often needed in packaging and disposable cutlery. According to North and Halden (2013), around 50% of all plastic in landfills results from packaging. The adoption of non-plastic and recycling measures by restaurants can lead to reduced packaging costs. Furthermore, use of bio-degradable materials such as disposable bamboo straws and cutlery ensures ways of composting methods and, thus, reduces landfills and increases the available arable lands (Moran, 2018). Consequently, the adoption of sustainable measures in the restaurant industry leads to the lower use of plastics, thus reducing the effects on habitats such as marine.
References
Ali, Y., Mustafa, M., Al-Mashaqbah, S., Mashal, K. and Mohsen, M., 2008. Potential of energy savings in the hotel sector in Jordan. Energy Conversion and Management, 49(11), pp.3391-3397.
Baldwin, C., Wilberforce, N. and Kapur, A., 2011. Restaurant and food service life cycle assessment and development of a sustainability standard. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 16(1), pp.40-49.
Bloom, J., 2010. American wasteland: how America throws away nearly half of its food (and what we can do about it). Da Capo Lifelong Books.
Iacovidou, E., Ohandja, D.G. and Voulvoulis, N., 2012. Food waste co-digestion with sewage sludge–realising its potential in the UK. Journal of Environmental Management, 112, pp.267-274.
Kallbekken, S. and Sælen, H., 2013. ‘Nudging’hotel guests to reduce food waste as a win–win environmental measure. Economics Letters, 119(3), pp.325-327.
Moran, M.E., 2018. An environmental and cost comparison between polypropylene plastic drinking straws and a" greener" alternative: an Oberlin case study (Doctoral dissertation, Oberlin College).
North, E.J. and Halden, R.U., 2013. Plastics and environmental health: the road ahead. Reviews on Environmental Health, 28(1), pp.1-8.
Papargyropoulou, E., Lozano, R., Steinberger, J.K., Wright, N. and bin Ujang, Z., 2014. The food waste hierarchy as a framework for the management of food surplus and food waste. Journal of Cleaner Production, 76, pp.106-115.
Pham, T.P.T., Kaushik, R., Parshetti, G.K., Mahmood, R. and Balasubramanian, R., 2015. Food waste-to-energy conversion technologies: current status and future directions. Waste Management, 38, pp.399-408.
Revell, A. and Blackburn, R., 2007. The business case for sustainability? An examination of small firms in the UK's construction and restaurant sectors. Business Strategy and the Environment, 16(6), pp.404-420.
