Climate Change Transformation for an Eco responsible Food & Beverage Operation
1st printed in Business World Hotelier in India - Recipe for Revival
Climate Change
Transformation for an Eco responsible Food & Beverage operation
Climate change has devastating impacts. It has led to severe heat waves, drought, floods and forest fires leading to destruction of crops, lives and livelihood every year. To ensure that the temperature does not increase by 1.5 ̊C by 2100, the global community is working together to find solutions like trying to assign carbon budgets to reduce the emission rates of different countries through COP (Conference of Parties) meetings. The recent COP 26 concluded in Glasgow in November 2021.
Promises made by India at the COP meeting in Glasgow:
1. To reach net-zero by 2070.
2. To increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030.
3. To fulfill 50% of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030.
4. To reduce its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030.
5. To reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45% by 2030.
Why was this promise made? Over the last 200 years, we have recklessly used fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil . While we teach our children to live within our means, we humans, have to learn to live within the bio capacity of the earth, which means, we learn to live with current solar energy, as opposed to combusting fossil fuels and use it sub-optimally in our products and processes.
Climate change has multifaceted impacts like creating inequity in water, gender and food security. These are changes which are already taking place and social unrest on a seismic scale will follow if we do not work collaboratively to arrest this dangerous trend.
During the Glasgow meeting, our Honourable Prime Minister gave a clarion call. He said “I propose before you a One-Word Movement. This One-Word, in the context of climate, ‘One-word' can become the basic foundation of the world - this word is L.I.F.E i.e. Lifestyle For Environment”
The one word L.I.F.E has many nuances for stakeholders to infer from & bring about behavioural changes at an individual level as well as at an organisational level.
The hospitality industry is a trend setter. This sector took the Sustainable Development (SD) steps 34 years ago when SD was not in vogue.
What will insightful actions look like from the Food & Beverage department perspective in hotels with knowledge of a rapidly declining resource?
First of all it is important to understand the definition of luxury, "It is something available for too few people”. The luxury for few should not cause harm to another set of vulnerable stakeholders**
This tenet must be ingrained in all operators
Tantalising opportunities
It is also important to understand in resource management, that we must not always rely on technologies and resources to reduce our emissions. There are great opportunities which do not require investment or use of resources.
In the restaurant trade, food, water and energy are the key resources used for operation.
Food
If food waste is a country, it is the 3rd largest emitter of CO2 emissions in the world. Hence F&B Managers must work creatively to reduce food waste by reducing portion size and feature the quantity in the menu for the guests to decide on how much to order.
The menu should cleverly feature somewhere the dangers of food waste - METHANE emission in landfill sites and its impact on the vulnerable communities that reside near such visually and nasally assaulting landfill sites. The industry should not be shy of communicating resource modesty in the menu as part of its service design. It is the need of the changing times **
Covid has taught us to miniaturise the buffet offering with limited but good choices. I hope we continue with this good practice.
While taking an A la Carte order in the restaurant, service staff must be trained to politely point out to the guest if they are over ordering.
(Ref:Global food systems emissions alone can cause global warming to exceed 1.5°C: CSE report 3rd March 2022)
Water
India is a water stressed country ( Niti Aayog) yet water is used carelessly, like there is no tomorrow. One must remember that water is going to be a limiting factor for businesses.
All restaurants and kitchens must have separate water meters. This will help to curb water waste, as it is often quoted in management jargon "what is measured, is monitored”
Water can be poured in small glasses and a jug kept on the table so that guests could help themselves to the quantity of water they need. An ultra-conservative figure of unconsumed water in 5 lakh restaurants in India results in1.5 crore litres of water that is thrown per day! This does not include water used for washing the glass. **
Energy
Energy in different forms, like solar hot water system, solar photovoltaic can be used in hotels and standalone restaurants with access to roof top space. We are a 300 days sun drenched country but we have still not leveraged this free resource to the hilt.
Radiant cooking systems help reduce gas consumption by approximately 40 %.
Food waste can be converted into bio gas to be used as fuel in the kitchen, bringing circularity in operation and helping the country reduce its reliance on imported fuels coming from disturbed regions.**
Chefs can develop healthy cold food items to reduce energy consumption.
Restaurants can communicate to their in house guests to wear comfortable clothes and avoid wearing a suit and tie (a colonial hangover) as the default temperature will be set at 25 degree C. An addition could be elegant looking fans running slowly.
To summarise, resource optimisation, dovetailed with clever communication with guests will lead to saving costs and reducing the impact of climate change .
“The real energy for change comes when you are facing a disaster upfront”. I hope the industry can see disasters waiting in every nook and corner of the world and proactively disrupt its own system.
Finally the industry must ask the hotel management institutes to change service design to bring resource efficiency in great detail. What the world needs urgently is a new crop of ecologically responsible leaders at a macro and micro level.
Needless to mention that this task must be undertaken collaboratively by all players in the hospitality sector - as in a sinking ship, everyone comes together to try and plug the leak for survival.
Transformation for an Eco responsible Food & Beverage operation
Climate change has devastating impacts. It has led to severe heat waves, drought, floods and forest fires leading to destruction of crops, lives and livelihood every year. To ensure that the temperature does not increase by 1.5 ̊C by 2100, the global community is working together to find solutions like trying to assign carbon budgets to reduce the emission rates of different countries through COP (Conference of Parties) meetings. The recent COP 26 concluded in Glasgow in November 2021.
Promises made by India at the COP meeting in Glasgow:
1. To reach net-zero by 2070.
2. To increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030.
3. To fulfill 50% of its energy requirements from renewable energy sources by 2030.
4. To reduce its total projected carbon emissions by 1 billion tons by 2030.
5. To reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 45% by 2030.
Why was this promise made? Over the last 200 years, we have recklessly used fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil . While we teach our children to live within our means, we humans, have to learn to live within the bio capacity of the earth, which means, we learn to live with current solar energy, as opposed to combusting fossil fuels and use it sub-optimally in our products and processes.
Climate change has multifaceted impacts like creating inequity in water, gender and food security. These are changes which are already taking place and social unrest on a seismic scale will follow if we do not work collaboratively to arrest this dangerous trend.
During the Glasgow meeting, our Honourable Prime Minister gave a clarion call. He said “I propose before you a One-Word Movement. This One-Word, in the context of climate, ‘One-word' can become the basic foundation of the world - this word is L.I.F.E i.e. Lifestyle For Environment”
The one word L.I.F.E has many nuances for stakeholders to infer from & bring about behavioural changes at an individual level as well as at an organisational level.
The hospitality industry is a trend setter. This sector took the Sustainable Development (SD) steps 34 years ago when SD was not in vogue.
What will insightful actions look like from the Food & Beverage department perspective in hotels with knowledge of a rapidly declining resource?
First of all it is important to understand the definition of luxury, "It is something available for too few people”. The luxury for few should not cause harm to another set of vulnerable stakeholders**
This tenet must be ingrained in all operators
Tantalising opportunities
It is also important to understand in resource management, that we must not always rely on technologies and resources to reduce our emissions. There are great opportunities which do not require investment or use of resources.
In the restaurant trade, food, water and energy are the key resources used for operation.
Food
If food waste is a country, it is the 3rd largest emitter of CO2 emissions in the world. Hence F&B Managers must work creatively to reduce food waste by reducing portion size and feature the quantity in the menu for the guests to decide on how much to order.
The menu should cleverly feature somewhere the dangers of food waste - METHANE emission in landfill sites and its impact on the vulnerable communities that reside near such visually and nasally assaulting landfill sites. The industry should not be shy of communicating resource modesty in the menu as part of its service design. It is the need of the changing times **
Covid has taught us to miniaturise the buffet offering with limited but good choices. I hope we continue with this good practice.
While taking an A la Carte order in the restaurant, service staff must be trained to politely point out to the guest if they are over ordering.
(Ref:Global food systems emissions alone can cause global warming to exceed 1.5°C: CSE report 3rd March 2022)
Water
India is a water stressed country ( Niti Aayog) yet water is used carelessly, like there is no tomorrow. One must remember that water is going to be a limiting factor for businesses.
All restaurants and kitchens must have separate water meters. This will help to curb water waste, as it is often quoted in management jargon "what is measured, is monitored”
Water can be poured in small glasses and a jug kept on the table so that guests could help themselves to the quantity of water they need. An ultra-conservative figure of unconsumed water in 5 lakh restaurants in India results in1.5 crore litres of water that is thrown per day! This does not include water used for washing the glass. **
Energy
Energy in different forms, like solar hot water system, solar photovoltaic can be used in hotels and standalone restaurants with access to roof top space. We are a 300 days sun drenched country but we have still not leveraged this free resource to the hilt.
Radiant cooking systems help reduce gas consumption by approximately 40 %.
Food waste can be converted into bio gas to be used as fuel in the kitchen, bringing circularity in operation and helping the country reduce its reliance on imported fuels coming from disturbed regions.**
Chefs can develop healthy cold food items to reduce energy consumption.
Restaurants can communicate to their in house guests to wear comfortable clothes and avoid wearing a suit and tie (a colonial hangover) as the default temperature will be set at 25 degree C. An addition could be elegant looking fans running slowly.
To summarise, resource optimisation, dovetailed with clever communication with guests will lead to saving costs and reducing the impact of climate change .
“The real energy for change comes when you are facing a disaster upfront”. I hope the industry can see disasters waiting in every nook and corner of the world and proactively disrupt its own system.
Finally the industry must ask the hotel management institutes to change service design to bring resource efficiency in great detail. What the world needs urgently is a new crop of ecologically responsible leaders at a macro and micro level.
Needless to mention that this task must be undertaken collaboratively by all players in the hospitality sector - as in a sinking ship, everyone comes together to try and plug the leak for survival.