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Many of us are actively seeking ways to improve our sustainability practices, whether to strengthen their brand identity, meet sustainability objectives, or discover fresh, innovative ideas.
At Trail, we’re passionate about sustainability. We've proudly worked with leading sustainability projects to help avoid more than 471 tCO2 and have developed energy-saving integrations to support restaurants in their journey toward a greener future. And we help thousands of hospitality venues on their journey towards sustainable operations.
In this article, we’ll look at how you can make changes in your operations to achieve your sustainability goals. Our aim is to make sustainability an achievable and impactful objective for your restaurant, so let’s dive in.
In 2023, the value of the hospitality industry was more than £70 billion, so restaurants and other hospitality venues are in a powerful position to drive change in the way food is produced, handled and transported. If restaurants have visible sustainability practices and are transparent and accountable about reporting results, customers with the same values will naturally lean towards these businesses. Thanks to the growth of social media, businesses have fewer places to hide environmental, ethical or social practices that fall below par. Making sure you can walk your talk about your commitment to sustainability will put your business ahead of the competition and build levels of brand loyalty for a brighter future.
Sustainability needs to be framed as a holistic approach to operating a business. This means that the objectives you set, and the changes you make, must be threaded throughout your restaurant to embed themselves fully and drive the long lasting results you’re looking for.
Aside from keeping ahead of consumer and market trends, sustainable working relies on monitoring supplier chains from their beginning through to the end and they should be as short and transparent as possible. For example, take a look at your menu. Is it seasonal with ingredients sourced from local suppliers? If not, and key ingredients such as beef are coming from South America, consider the CO2, high emissions and logistics involved in getting just that one ingredient onto your customers’ plates.
However, sustainability in restaurants isn’t just about being green or switching menu choices from tropical fruit souffle to good old British apple crumble when September comes around. In this article we’re going to show how the careful blending of environmental considerations, socially responsible practices and economic sustainability will provide a solid and measurable foundation for your restaurant's goals.
Food waste reduction and recycling are perhaps what first leaps to mind when thinking about environmental impact. However, environmental considerations need to go further when implementing measurable sustainability actions in your restaurant business. You’ll want to include practices to reduce your restaurant’s carbon footprint and promote sustainability in food production – a key challenge being faced by farmers and food manufacturers not just in the UK, but worldwide.
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Looking at your supplier list. Are there suppliers located closer to your restaurant which could provide the same quality goods with the added benefit of lower food mileage? And where are they sourcing their products?
What else?
Another specific and measurable task to reduce the environmental impact of your restaurant is to monitor the temperature of cellars, fridges and freezers to make sure they’re operating at food safety standards and are energy efficient. This can be done easily using a digital checklist. A positive by-product of managing food storage temperatures is the reduction of waste, which will cut down on costs and improve the system of planning and ordering for your restaurant.
What impact does your restaurant have on your employees, customers, local, and world communities? Are staff paid a fair wage for a fair day’s work? Are they engaged with the brand, and do they represent your values? If your premises have a high footfall with regular return business, then you can be sure that your employees are going above and beyond to deliver your brand’s vision. If you could extend this positive feeling to your local community, there’s potential for your restaurant to thrive for years to come.
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Compare your staff’s wages to other restaurants. Does it enable them to have a decent standard of living? What you pay could make all the difference between an employee who feels valued and works well, and an employee who feels disengaged and vulnerable to any sudden, unexpected expense at home. Think about the extra value that could be added to a basic salary in the form of discounts, team building events and free meals if any goods are at the point of going to waste. Training should be a key part of your remuneration package and is of enormous benefit to employees who are keen to progress. Training in FSA food hygiene regulations is something that can be done in-house and checklists to support this are available on the Trail app.
What else?
Think about the ways in which you could engage your local community. Schools are a good starting point and welcome businesses who are happy to come in and talk to pupils about the work they do. They also appreciate help with practical and curriculum specific tasks such as talking about the food supply chain, designing meal plans, and how to have a healthy diet.
Having a profitable restaurant is the aim of all restaurant owners and leaders but making sure your business is food safety compliant, resilient in times of economic downturn and operating efficiently all comes at a cost. So, how can restaurants work towards, and remain economically sustainable?
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Use a digital checklist app to its full capability. As a paperless option, you’ll make an instant saving on office stationery such as paper, printer ink and folders; there’s also the added benefit of cost savings on business waste collections if less paper is being used. To cut down on energy and food waste, choose an app that can also alert you if appliances such as fridges aren’t working as they should. With Trail, all this, and more, is accessible on a dashboard to give you a complete picture of what is going on within your restaurant and notify you in time to put things right; hopefully before anything expensive and difficult to fix happens.
What else?
Investing in technology is an investment which can lead to greater cost savings in the long run. It can enable restaurant operators to monitor daily essential checks as well as managing ad hoc mandatory public health requirements.
Additionally, investing in an app such as Trail can be useful for staff training. If more than one person knows how to use the app for monitoring and reporting, then the financial impact linked to staff sickness absence can be lessened, making your restaurant more financially resilient.
In this article we’ve looked at the definition of sustainability as well as some of the ways you could build more responsible practices into the day-to-day running of your restaurant. Just be mindful that the aims you put in place need to be impactful, measurable and tweaked as necessary to ensure they’re right for your business.
Paperless technology such as Trail can step in and give you peace of mind that essential appliances are working as they should and properly storing the goods you’ve sourced from ethically accredited suppliers in your area - just one example of how a chain can be shortened, leading to reduced food waste, lower energy usage, less food miles, lower emissions, less reliance on paper resources, and a strong message to your customers that you care about a brighter, more sustainable future for all.
To future-proof your restaurant and enhance your sustainability practices, adopting smart technology can make a significant difference. If you’re interested in how our technology can support your journey towards a more sustainable restaurant, get in touch with us today.
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