Reducing Carbon Footprints: Sustainable Hospitality Practices in 2024

According to the British Business Bank, the hospitality sector is the UK’s third-largest employer with over 220,000 businesses. The sector accounts for up to 15% of UK greenhouse gases, and it generates 920,000 tonnes of food waste each year.

With this in mind, the hospitality industry has an incredibly influential role in promoting sustainability. Sitting between food production and the consumer, sustainable hospitality can promote positive change in both directions. However, this is not without its challenges. The most prevalent of those challenges being rising costs and staffing difficulties.

These challenges demand constant monitoring, but shouldn’t act as distractions from the ultimate goal of promoting sustainable hospitality, and we’re here to tell you why. This article aims to cover why making sustainability a core part of your hospitality strategy will alleviate these challenges and more.

Careful management of food waste makes a noticeable difference, as can switching to energy-efficient equipment and practices. Here are some of the top factors to focus on in your business:

• Introducing a wider variety of plant-based dishes: Reduce ordering costs while presenting your brand as more inclusive of dietary preferences.
• Local and seasonal sourcing: Lower transportation costs while supporting the local economy. Aside from costs, this also reduces your carbon footprint. Produce with considerably less air miles is an important element to consider going forward, ethically and environmentally.
• Strong sustainability standing: Increase the prices on your offerings, higher quality products can justify a higher price.
• Honest sustainability-related communication: With more customers actively interested in sustainable dining, honest communication about your work translates into a highly effective marketing strategy. People want to know where their money is going, especially as prices continue to rise. If you have strong sustainable practices, it satisfies intentional customers that want to know they are spending their money consciously.

How sustainability helps manage recruitment

As Gen-Z enters the workforce, companies that are working hard to boost employee wellbeing and being transparent about their sustainability goals, will find it easier to attract potential employees.

Paying fairly and looking after staff wellbeing will also aid retention rates; recruiting and training new team members costs much more than keeping existing staff happy. While the environment is often first to mind when you hear the word ‘sustainability,’ businesses must also focus on social sustainability. Hospitality is putting a lot more consideration into how they look after their staff and interact with their communities, and into ensuring the people throughout their supply chains are paid fairly and treated with dignity.

More whole-food plant-based menu options

Introducing more plant-based items on the menu—with less (but better quality) meat and dairy—can tick a lot of sustainability boxes at once. This has the effect of reducing emissions, soil and water degradation, land conversion, and water use—all while supporting better public health.

The key to getting this right is to ensure that your plant-rich dishes rank among the most popular, making the sustainable choice an easy one. With people increasingly wary of ultra-processed foods, it’s also smart to focus on whole-plant ingredients like legumes, tofu, tempeh, mushrooms, nuts and seeds, rather than highly processed meat alternatives.

Local food has real appeal. Sourcing local foods supports small businesses and helps customers to feel more connected to their food. This is even possible in cities, repurposing unused spaces for vertical farms and allotments or restaurants growing food in their outdoor spaces, on rooftops or right in their kitchens.

Involving guests

Hospitality venues can turn their sustainability initiatives into an interactive experience for guests by providing information about their green practices in their menus and public spaces, encouraging guests to participate in conservation efforts.

Training your workforce

Educating staff about sustainable practices leads to more efficient operations and cause a ripple effect where staff bring these practices to their homes and their communities. Staff will, in turn, promote sustainable practices to customers and encourage their participation. Moreover, recognising and rewarding employees for their contributions can boost morale and motivation.

Smart approaches to waste reduction

Restaurants are finding clever ways to prevent waste: things like reviewing portion sizes, careful ordering and stock management, conscious menu design and nose-to-tail/root-to-shoot cooking.

Sustainable hospitality shouldn’t need its own name, it should just be hospitality. But this won’t become the norm until a majority of hospitality brands pursue sustainability in their growth strategies. Beyond giving back to the planet, the consumer’s investment in sustainable brands means there is a notable market for hospitality brands to promote ethical practices. This also works when considering retention rates in employees. People want to give their attention and energy to sustainable brands that are making an effort to make a difference.

At Propeller, we have over 20 years of experience in the hospitality sector, from web development to content creation, we are confident in our ability to promote sustainable hospitality brands. Contact us today to see how we can help your business today.