Sustainability is becoming increasingly integrated into all aspects of hotel operations, and kitchens are no exception. For many hoteliers, reducing food waste and other eco-conscious measures are part and parcel of their kitchen procedures as well as restaurant service and F&B procurement. The above-property F&B team at Remington Hospitality is a case in point, placing a strong emphasis on the integration of sustainable practices into everyday operations. “Over the past few years, our hotel kitchens and restaurants have evolved significantly in sustainability and waste reduction,” said Ted Peters, senior vice president of food & beverage strategy. “We’ve moved from simply ‘recycling where possible’ to embedding sustainability into purchasing, production, and service.”
Similarly, Meyer Jabara Hotels implements a sustainable F&B model across its full-service properties that includes operational rigor (purchasing, labor, waste reduction), collaborative culture (sharing results across hotels), and guest-centric sourcing (local programs, seasonal menus)—combining business performance and minimized environmental impact. “We embed sustainability directly into our F&B structure—not treating it as a standalone project,” said Guy Reinbold, corporate director of food & beverage.
Like many green initiatives, sustainability in the kitchen is driven by environmental stewardship as an intrinsic value, along with commercial advantages such as cost reduction and positive client perception. For example, Remington’s green practices in the kitchen—including consistent food waste tracking and staff training—have resulted in an average food cost savings of 3 percent to 5 percent, Peters noted. Concord Hospitality’s F&B sustainability measures have thus far reduced food expenses by 1 percent to 2 percent. However, “cost savings are a work in progress in this industry—always improving on inventory management, being more intentional about ordering, and avoiding surplus,” commented Zach Wendel, Concord Hospitality’s regional director of F&B.
In addition, providing evidence of F&B sustainability helps draw group clients who prefer or require those practices in their hotel partners. “This has become a major selling point for our sales teams,” said Wendel. “By reducing our carbon footprint and being able to provide documentation to meeting and event planners, they can show that their clients and companies are also helping to reduce waste in landfills.”
Yet another benefit of sustainability is less tangible but quite significant: streamlining labor and promoting staff retention. “Beyond cost, these practices have improved kitchen efficiency and morale by fostering ownership and pride in sustainability,” said Peters.
F&B Purchasing
Sourcing from sustainability-oriented F&B vendors is a major priority in this area, and a group purchasing organization (GPO) can connect operators to those suppliers. “Through our partnership with Avendra, our GPO, we proactively source from sustainable vendors—from seafood and produce to cleaning products and packaging—ensuring that our purchasing aligns with long-term environmental and social responsibility goals,” Peters explained.
Collaborating on F&B department purchasing across the portfolio is a key best practice that can both reduce expenses and enhance sustainability. Meyer Jabara Hotels’ F&B Impact Committee structure, for example, brings together purchasing, catering, à-la-carte, and limited-service sub-committees. A single master food-supplier partnership approved by that committee has resulted in system-wide food-cost reductions, Reinbold noted. “Instead of each hotel working in a silo, they share data, test local sourcing programs, repurpose excess ingredients, and standardize deliveries to reduce waste and environmental impact. Through strategies such as consolidating deliveries and maximizing labor skillsets, we are improving operational efficiency and minimizing the hidden costs of wasteful practices.”
Partnering with local F&B suppliers is another environmentally sound practice as it reduces product transportation, but a little effort is needed to locate those producers and build relationships with them. “Our hotels and chefs are encouraged to use local vendors and providers,” noted Wendel. “We build relationships with farmers and cheese mongers in the markets we are in, often creating partnerships with local artisans. We invite them into our venues and have them stay and dine with us so they can see how their products are being used. This creates a strong desire on their part to provide the best possible product to our chefs—even more so when we include their names or the farm’s name on the menu.”
He added that once farmers are made aware of “your vision for a localized, sustainable program, you’ll be surprised at how excited farmers get to be able to work on these kinds of projects. It will be far more cost-efficient, but it also allows for building deeper community relationships, and it allows for more procedural input—deciding what crops will be grown and coordinating seasonal menus around what can be most sustainably grown at that time of year.”
For example, at Toscana—a Tuscan steakhouse located in the AC Marriott and Hyatt House hotel complex in Lansing, Michigan—Concord Hospitality has been “moving toward using local ingredients, sustainable sourcing, and partnering with local farms to create plans of having exclusive plots of land dedicated for us in which we can dictate what will be grown based on our needs,” Wendel described.
Concord Hospitality has also leveraged partnerships with Avendra and National Produce Consultants to source local F&B vendors. The latter connects the purchasing team with vendors that are part of a large produce alliance around the country. “Using them has been fantastic as they find local vendors that also provide rebates and incentives for our purchases,” Wendel noted. “Our biggest challenge with locally sourced food is consistency of supply and pricing volatility, especially across such a broad portfolio. However, we work with Avendra and regional distributors to identify hyper-local options that can be incorporated into rotating menus without disrupting brand standards or budgets.”
Food Waste Tracking and Reduction
Improving sustainability in kitchen procedures requires carefully monitoring food waste with the aim of reducing it, which can be accomplished manually but is increasingly facilitated by technology. “Several of our hotels utilize digital food waste tracking systems that monitor prep waste, spoilage, and plate waste in real time,” noted Peters. “For other properties, we use simpler manual logs tied into weekly chef meetings to review purchasing and production data. This has created accountability and helped reduce overproduction and food cost variance.”
In addition to monitoring, Concord Hospitality has implemented procedures for staff to reduce food waste. “One short-term method has been to utilize things that would either be going out of date or scrap product (trim off of steaks, etc.) to utilize for family meals,” Wendel explained, “as well as finding methods for cross-utilization of products. For example, we use egg whites for mousse, so we find a recipe where we can solely utilize yolks to make sure we utilize all the products.”
Complementing those practices, Concord Hospitality is leveraging a third-party tech company, BioGreen 360, whose software enables F&B staff to track all food waste from hotel restaurants as well as banquet and event groups and make comparisons month over month and year over year. “We can track and report out to our clients the amount of actual food waste that was created from their events,” said Wendel. “Their waterless composting system then takes our waste and regenerates it into fertilizer. This is all about reducing the carbon footprint, and many corporation shareholders are demanding an accounting of waste produced.” While there are many F&B waste tracking solutions on the market, BioGreen 360 “is one of the few that actually set up a system to hold the waste and then pick it up at our locations. They report back to us the total weight of the product and how much we have diverted from local landfills. Then they turn it back into fertilizer and mulch. It is truly a closed-loop program,” he explained, adding that more municipalities are requiring certifiable means of composting and recycling.
Donation of unconsumed food, when possible, is an important practice in the closely related area of social responsibility. “In select markets, we partner with local composting services and food banks for safe surplus donation programs,” said Peters. “In many cases, our hotels work with local nonprofits for recurring partnerships that ensure food recovery aligns with health and safety regulations.”
Sustainable Equipment
An F&B sustainability program should not only be focused on product sourcing and usage. Like many back-of-house departments, kitchens use equipment that consumes energy and water, and minimizing that consumption is also part of a comprehensive F&B sustainability program. Concord Hospitality, for example, deploys low-water dishwashers in its hotels and restaurants as well as motion sensor or foot pedal-activated hand-wash stations, which “have a big impact on water savings,” Wendel noted.
Remington Hospitality’s above-property F&B team has “systematically upgraded kitchen equipment to include high-efficiency dishwashers, induction cooktops, and ENERGY STAR-rated refrigeration and ice systems in new builds and renovations,” Peters said. “We’ve also implemented low-flow pre-rinse sprayers and water-saving dish machines to reduce overall consumption.”
Minimizing the utilization of equipment in the department also contributes to reducing consumption. Wendel noted that at Smoke and Mirrors, a Concord Hospitality-managed rooftop bar and restaurant AC Hotel Washington DC Capitol Hill Navy Yard, “it’s all the little things that add up, such as mindful operation of our heaters and gas fire pits, smartly timing the need and benefit of those.”
Awareness and Training
While sustainable sourcing, food waste tracking tools, recycling and composting partners, and energy/water saving equipment are all key components of an F&B sustainability strategy, a culture of sustainability among kitchen and restaurant staff is indispensable. “Staff training is critical, building muscle memory and making it part of the routine,” Wendel said. “Get everyone motivated to utilize the entire product of whatever food stuffs you are working with—saving the scraps and peelings for stocks and sauces or cross-utilizing ingredients in multiple applications. We are making sure every product is labelled and dated, making sure everyone knows FIFO [first in, first out]. The biggest driver here is making sure everything is properly organized so we are able to efficiently utilize the right product and make sure we are ordering appropriately.”
Peters concurred on the value of staff awareness and knowledge in driving F&B sustainability. “Training is foundational,” he said. “Each property integrates waste awareness into line-up meetings and onboarding. Our culinary teams are trained to implement FIFO systems, proper storage rotation, accurate forecasting, and yield management. We also emphasize portion control and repurposing safe surplus into staff meals where appropriate.”
So, while a large support system consisting of partners and tools may be in place to drive sustainability, the F&B crew is in the cockpit of the plane, and their proper training is needed for the program to take off.