Reduce your carbon footprint in restaurant management

A current challenge for many restaurants is minimising the negative impact that their operations have on the environment. To do this, it is crucial to reduce food waste and greenhouse gas emissions produced by the business.

Are you aware of your restaurant’s carbon footprint? Do you have protocols in place for limiting it?

What is a restaurant's carbon footprint?

Let’s start by defining the most important term: carbon footprint.

A carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that a living being, person, or organisation produces. It’s measured by emissions in tonnes of Carbon Dioxide (CO2).

An increasing percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere is directly responsible for global warming, which has many destructive consequences.

How do I determine my restaurant’s carbon footprint?

To assess your restaurant’s ecological impact, analyse the entire footprint that your business’s activities leave behind. This involves considering every single step of your working process, including obtaining and transporting raw materials, the preparation of your dishes, choosing to offer new services and food waste management. As you will discover, all these activities contribute to a tremendous carbon footprint.

Unfortunately, the hospitality industry is among the sectors that produce the greatest carbon footprint and are consequently extremely environmentally impactful.  Enforcing sustainability measures is a growing priority. It’s time to get down to business, join forces and change restaurants to be:
 

Sustainable and committed to the planet.

Responsible for the consequences of their actions.

Adaptive to the latest eco-friendly trends.

Best practices for reducing carbon footprint in restaurants

Here you can find some basic steps to achieve this in your restaurant management.

Train and educate your team

To get started, try to integrate sustainability into the company philosophy of your restaurant, and train the team to understand your new priorities: 

• Explain the changes to be made
• The reasons why these adjustments are happening
• The positive influence these new policies will have throughout the entire company
• The reduced environmental impact of these implementations 

Educating staff is crucial for elevating the collective consciousness of environmental challenges faced by the restaurant industry. Furthermore, these shifts can help businesses effect long-term strategic change to reduce their carbon footprint. 

There are companies that specialise in helping restaurants take this big step with the right information and methodology. Look them up where you are and hire their services for an extra hand.

Practice sustainable purchasing

When you think about restaurant management, one of the core activities that comes to mind is purchasing. This is also the area where you can reduce your carbon footprint the most by following these best practice purchasing steps:

• Opt for reusable tableware, such as cups, cutlery, glasses, napkins, etc. Phase out single-use plastics or disposable equipment. You can also replace bottled water with filtered tap water in recycled bottles or jugs.

• Choose seasonal products that are locally sourced, have recyclable packaging, and therefore are less impactful to transport. 

• Buy sustainable farming and fishing products from farms that promote animal well-being. Be wary of the beef cattle industry, which is responsible for the world’s highest methane emissions.

Effective waste management

Great improvements are also possible through effective waste management.

• Begin with a prevention phase to produce the least food waste possible. Divide and store ingredients in groups according to their preservation level. Then, label them with expiration dates to ensure they are cooked according to these parameters. This way, nothing goes to waste.
• Make sure you have the proper equipment for cutting, peeling, and processing products efficiently. A well-sharpened knife can make a world of difference.

• Analyse leftover food on plates and serve smaller quantities of the products customers tend to leave the most. You could even decide to remove menu items that are not ordered very often or aren’t profitable.

• Join the trash cooking trend, which allows you to reuse shells, seeds and leftovers as ingredients for other recipes.

• Recycle. Designate a specific area where staff can separate and wash the waste before recycling it and putting it into the appropriate containers. Rather than discarding leftover food, you can also donate it to food banks or soup kitchens.

General cost optimisation

If you want to save money, you can find some useful tips in the list below.

• Analyse your restaurant’s energy consumption and create a plan to reduce it as much as possible. Sustainable restaurants generally install energy-efficient appliances, low-wattage lighting systems, lights with motion sensors, and efficient air conditioning.

• Reduce water waste by installing dual-flush systems, timed faucets, and eco-technology for washing equipment. The same applies to gas consumption.

These measures have the power to lower bills by up to 20%. Optimise restaurant management, reduce your overall carbon footprint, and get more out of your budget at the same time!

Implementing sustainable processes is a winning strategy for all: the restaurant, the customers, the community, and the planet! 

Will you join in and build a more sustainable restaurant?

Case studies: successful carbon footprint reduction in restaurants

The restaurant industry is one of the most impactful in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption. 

But that’s not all. According to Waste Managed’s 2024 report, 1.1 million tons of food waste came from the hospitality sector alone, at a total cost of £19 billion for the restaurant industry. 

Taking note of similarly damning figures has had a significant influence on how some restaurants now manage their businesses, implementing a more sustainable approach.

There are some great examples of UK chains in particular that succeeded in reducing their carbon footprint by implementing effective zero-waste strategies to save money and be more environmentally conscious. 

In 2016, the Wahaca group reached carbon neutrality thanks to measures in accordance with the Carbon Neutral Protocol. How do they do it, and more importantly, how do they apply this plan to all 13 London-based restaurants?

• Using the energy generated by their fridges to heat hot water.
• Making their menu 60% vegetarian. They opt for seasonal ingredients from local suppliers and introduce plant-based options. 
• For the sake of sustainability and transparency, customers can see the carbon footprint of every dish.