Accor Hotels is planning to cut its food waste by 30% and to increase sustainability by adding vegetable gardens to numbers of its locations.
The major hotel operator, which includes 3,900 hotels under the Ibis, Mercure, Sofitel, Pullman and Novotel brands, generates 25-30% of its revenue from its hotel restaurants, which serve about 150 million meals and 130 million pastries a year.
Its first step in the campaign requires hotels to weigh and record all food discards to see what's being wasted. Plans will then be drawn up to avoid the waste.
Among the tools in the plan are menu changes. Some of the restaurants offer up to 40 main courses; a reduction to 15 or 20 would be expected to reduce unused supplies. More foods will be sourced locally, reducing spoilage in transportation and extending local shelf life.