Introduction
‘Green’, ‘sustainable’, ‘local’ and ‘organic’ foods are major menu items for many restaurants and are a focal point not only of positioning and promotion but also of consumer demand. But what do these terms mean, especially when they seem to be used so widely? And, if they are speaking to how the hospitality and food services sector responds to issues of climate and environmental change then how do managers, chefs and staff know how to apply these concepts in the kitchen? This chapter provides an introduction to these issues by highlighting how concepts of sustainability are important not only for a greener kitchen but also for the bottom line. The chapter provides an explanation for the design of the book, the inherent difficulties that emerge when it comes to examining sustainability in the kitchen and in the front of house and discusses how it can be used by stressing that there are many ways in which any kitchen, restaurant or foodservice operation can reduce its impact on the environment.
In this book, we will often use the terms ‘sustainable restaurant’ or ‘sustainable food services’. This, in part, reflects the wide range of food-related businesses and organizations that exist. This book focuses on the sustainability of the hospitality and food services sector, which includes all outlets that serve food and/or drinks for immediate intake in an out-of-home setting (Dhir et al., 2020). This means that the notion of food services includes both profit/commercial and cost-driven/non-commercial organizations (Marthinsen et al., 2012; WRAP, 2020). The wide range of foodservice operations that this includes is illustrated in Table 1.1, which shows the estimates of food waste for premises in the UK by the different sectors.
Table 1.1 Number of premises and food waste arising by hospitality and food services sector in the UK, 2015 and 2018 | Sector | Number of premises 2015 | Number of premises 2018 | Food waste 2015 (t) | Food waste 2018 (t) |
| Profit sector |
| Quick-Service Restaurant | 37,000 | 39,000 | 103,000 | 106,000 |
| Restaurants | 56,000 | 63,000 | 253,000 | 289,000 |
| Pubs and clubs | 40,000 | 46,000 | 202,000 | 234,000 |
| Hotels | 13,000 | 13,000 | 83,000 | 88,000 |
| Leisure, transport and sport | 14,000 | 15,000 | 60,000 | 61,000 |
| Total profit sector | | | 702,000 | 779,000 |
| Number of people or other unit 2015 | Number of people or other unit 2018 | | |
| Cost sector | | | | |
| Education, of which: | | | 125,000 | 127,000 |
| Primary schools (all sizes) | 5,356,000 | 5,575,000 | 66,000 | 68,000 |
| Secondary schools (all sizes) | 3,790,000 | 3,869,000 | 28,000 | 28,000 |
| Further education (all sizes) | 1,362,000 | 940,000 | 5,000 | 4,000 |
| Higher education (all sizes) | 2,092,000 | 2,343,000 | 2,000 | 3,000 |
| Other education | | | 24,000 | 25,000 |
| Health, of which: | | | 120,000 | 120,000 |
| Nursing and residential | 535,000 | 535,000 | 59,000 | 59,000 |
| Hospitals (catering units) | 1,000 | 1,000 | 61,000 | 61,000 |
| Services, of which: | | | 65,000 | 62,000 |
| Prisons | 95,000 | 85,000 | 19,000 | 17,000 |
| Military bases (number) | 1,000 | 1,000 | 46,000 | 46,000 |
| Staff catering (number of premises offering) | 8,000 | 8,000 | 22,000 | 21,000 |
| Total cost sector | | | 332,000 | 331,000 |
| Source: WRAP (2020) |
In general terms, the profit sector includes hotels, restaurants and cafés (HORECA), and commercial catering. Restaurants include establishments serving different cuisines and food styles, as well as quick-service restaurants (QSR) also referred to as fast-food outlets that offer both eat-in or takeaway at various locations, as well as cafés. Hotels include accommodation providers such as luxury, business or budget hotels, bed & breakfasts, catered apartments and hostels. Both restaurants and hotels also cover catering services. Other for-profit foodservice businesses include commercial catering, such as that available at events and convention centres as well as for clients. Cost-driven or institutional foodservice operations include the health care sector (hospitals, nursing homes and care centres); education (preschools, primary and secondary schools, tertiary education institutions, colleges and universities) and staff catering such as canteens and cafeterias located in workplaces for feeding employees (Dhir et al., 2020).
The wide range of businesses, organizations and institutions involved in food services means that the sector is inherently complex with different drivers that will affect how notions of sustainability can be implemented (Filimonau & De Coteau, 2019). For example, while restaurants can consider food donation as a way of dealing with waste, hospitals will usually not have that option available to them due to the risk of infection (Dhir et al., 2020). A further complicating factor is that as a result of outsourcing many of the food services in public hospitals and educational facilities are now provided by commercial catering businesses (Gray et al., 2017; Carino et al., 2020). Therefore, Dhir et al. (2020) suggest that hospitality and food services comprise three main segments: (a) a business segment, including accommodations and food service at hotels, restaurants, cafés, workplace canteens, inflight catering, snack bars, coffee shops and pubs; (b) an education segment, including nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools, tertiary education centres, colleges and universities and (c) a health care segment, comprising hospitals, elder care, retirement homes and nursing homes. In this book, we will primarily concentrate on the business segment, although, given the substantial overlap that exists, we will also be referring to examples from the education and health care segments.
