G.R.E.E.N. Hospitality’s latest report on the urgency of tackling food waste
Our guess is that you must be excited about this year’s G.R.E.E.N. Hospitality Conference, and we are crossing our fingers that it will happen as planned, too.
But the work of G.R.E.E.N. Hospitality goes beyond convening hospitality businesses, experts in various aspects of sustainable development, and social businesses with innovative solutions. Among our main ventures is the in-depth research on various environmental concerns and potential solutions in the hospitality industry. It is through these research reports that we provide an overview of different sustainability challenges faced by the hospitality industry, along with case studies and actionable solutions for the industry to innovate and collaborate their sustainability path forward. This goal of ours is reflected in the work of our lead researcher, Camille Fabre, who has extensively researched and compiled various reports and toolkits on issues ranging from plastic waste, solid waste to the MSW crisis in Hong Kong.
This month, G.R.E.E.N. Hospitality has released a new report on another common obstacle faced by hospitality businesses in their work towards sustainable development: food waste. Because of its nature and its negative impacts on the environment and on all the other waste streams, segregating food waste is considered to be the first step towards an effective waste management system, not sorting plastic, glass or paper, as said by the World Bank. Food waste is also the most important waste to tackle because it is the type of waste that we generate the most, regardless of the levels of development of our cities/countries.
In Hong Kong, the majority of solid waste consists of food waste, with around 3,600 tonnes of food thrown away each day. In comparison, the production of vegetables, fish, pork and poultry is about 67,500 tonnes. With all this food going to waste, it's time for us to rethink our definitions of food waste.
In this report, G.R.E.E.N. Hospitality takes readers on a deep dive into the sheer amount of global and regional food waste and food loss, their less understood environmental and social costs, and the solutions being implemented by hospitality businesses that are taking the lead in resource conservation and food waste reduction. This report hopes to help hospitality businesses rethink their actions and reduce food waste from different aspects of their operations.
There is a traditional Chinese saying: “Behind every grain of rice on your plate, tremendous efforts were involved.”
Interested in reading the full report? Get it here!
Read more of G.R.E.E.N. Hospitality’s other research reports here.