Chef Arthur Potts-Dawson shares his very personal vision for drastically reducing restaurant, and supermarket, waste — creating recycling, composting, sustainable engines for good (and good food). According to Potts-Dawson, restaurants (and the food industry in general) are the most wasteful industry in the world.
Click the image below to hear his vision for sustainable restaurants.
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U.S. travelers seem concerned about green practices, but just aren’t willing to pay extra for it. A new consumer survey by the U.S. Travel Association and Ypartnership reveals that, despite increased awareness of green issues, only 9 percent of consumers say they are willing to pay more to use travel service suppliers that offer eco-friendly options for travelers, and only 3 percent have purchased a carbon offset when booking travel.
“Consumers are looking for ‘green travel’ choices at the right price. The travel community has developed thousands of options and we are adding more daily,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of U.S. Travel Association.
The survey revealed addtional key findings about the green habits of U.S. travelers. For a review of the survey, visit the Travel Agent Central web site.
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McDonald’s is setting up 10 test restaurants that will act as learning laboratories as the restaurant chain focuses on energy savings and waste reduction.
Globally, McDonald’s consumes $1.7 billion annually in energy and it spends another $1.3 billion handling its waste. The world’s top-selling restaurant chain has more than 31,000 locations worldwide.
Examples of McDonald’s environmental efforts include the green prototype in Chicago, which uses 25 less energy than similar locations, and the Cary, N.C. location, which offers drivers of electric cars a charging station on site.
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The U.S. hotel industry has been slow to embrace the virtues of environmentalism. A recent survey by California’s Waste Management Board found that the state’s average-sized hotel purchases more products in one week than 100 families do in a year and uses 218 gallons of water per day per occupied room.
But the industry seems to be making progress, especially in California. Of the 18 U.S. hotels to achieve LEED certification, six were in California. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program is the gold standard for environmental certification. It is sponsored by the U.S. Green Building Council, which ensures that the facility has been evaluated for energy efficiency, water savings, materials use and other sustainability-related criteria.
Find the list of LEED certified hotel properties in California.
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TravelGreen.org, produced by the U.S. Travel Association and American Express, is an excellent source for information on sustainability efforts within the travel community. The site documents the latest developments in sustainable travel and profiles case studies from each sector of the industry, including hotels, restaurants, cruise lines, airlines, and more.
One of the most interesting aspects of TravelGreen.org is the travel industry case studies. This area of the site provides a forum for travel companies to share their success stories on the development of programs that mitigate the impact of travel on the environment. Case studies include documentation from several hospitality organizations such as Marriott International, Yosemite National Park, and American Society of Travel Agents.
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Eating locally grown produce is important to restaurant customers, as evident by the growing number of locavores. “Locavore” (which combines “local” with “omnivore” or “herbivore”) is such a popular concept that it was named the 2007 Word of the Year by the New Oxford American Dictionary. The term refers to residents who try to eat food grown or produced within a 100-mile radius, which means eating only locally produced food.
Restaurant chains are responding to the demand for locally grown produce, although in different ways. Some feature local produce in regional, limited-time offers. Others source local products at peak season only. Still others find local sources for core menu items such as dairy and meat that are available year-round.
A recent article published in Chain Leader examines how restaurant chains are overcoming challenges and doing more to explore local-sourcing options. Issues of Chain Leader can be found on the shelves in the Nestlé Library. Additionally, members of the Cornell community can access electronic copies of the magazine.
Read a March, 2008 article from the Cornell Chronicle that examines the locavore trend in Ithaca.
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Sustainable packaging is a hot topic in the foodservice industry. Terms such as compostable, biodegradable, and recyclable are used frequently – but what does each term actually mean?
A recent article in QSR Magazine spelled out the difference of each term and the implications for restaurateurs. In a nutshell, compostable products must biodegrade at a specified rate (as defined by ASTM International standards), biodegradable refers to anything that breaks into smaller and smaller pieces until microorganisms can consume it, and recyclable products are anything that can be remade into something new.
Read the full article, including a case study of how McDonald’s reduced its packaging by more than 300 million pounds cumulatively in the 1990s.
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The Nestlé Library recently received our copy of What is the Impact of Tourism? This book is part of the At Issue series published by Greenhaven Press. As with other volumes in the At Issue series, What is the Impact of Tourism? offers a variety of perspectives – eyewitness accounts, governmental views, scientific analysis, and more – to illuminate an important social issue.
The premise of this book is that modern-day tourism creates social, economic, and environmental challenges on a global scale. Sample chapters include: Tourism Threatens Indigenous Cultures, Tourism Threatens World Landmarks, and Ecotourism Can Harm the Environment.
What is the Impact of Tourism? can be found on the New Books shelf in the library (call number G155.1 W47)
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"I do solemnly swear to preserve, protect, and defend the food pyramid."
President Obama’s flair for good food will encourage people to expand their horizons when it comes to what they eat. That’s the hope of the country’s top chefs, several of whom traveled to Washington for the inauguration last week. Much of that hope rests on Obama’s ability to change the culture of food production in the U.S. from large corporate farming organizations to smaller farms that sell more natural, nutritious food. Read the full article.
For a background look at how presidents and their families have mixed diplomacy with dining, check out the Cornell library’s copies of The President’s Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy by Barry Landau or White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen by Walter Scheib and Andrew Friedman.
If you’re still craving more information about the president’s eating habits, take a look at Obama Foodorama.
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Future fishing rod handles
There are approximately 13 billion natural cork wine stoppers sold into the world market annually, with the majority of them ending up in landfill instead of in reuse applications. Cork is ideal for recycling – it is biodegradable, renewable, energy efficient, sustainable and 100% natural.
Unlike plastic or metal screw-cap closures, recycled cork can be turned into flooring tile, building insulation, shoe soles, fishing rod handles, bulletin boards, and even soil conditioner, among other uses. Natural cork is biodegradable, sustainable and a valuable source for carbon retention.
ReCORK America is a recycling program sponsored by Amorim, the world’s largest producer of natural cork wine closures, and their U.S. affiliates, Portocork America and Amorim Cork America. ReCORK America is a program focused on obtaining used and surplus corks from winery tasting rooms, bottling lines and quality assurance laboratories. In addition, collection locations are being established with key retailers and restaurants in larger metropolitan areas.
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Marriott International is experimenting with innovative techniques to “green” some of its supply chains. One area of emphasis is the key cards used to gain entry into rooms. Effective immediately, the company will begin replacing the 24 million plastic key cards that it purchases annually in the U.S. with those made of 50 percent recycled material, thereby saving 66 tons of plastic from being dumped in a landfill. Other ideas include pillows made from 100 percent recycled PET bottles, coreless toilet paper, and pens made from pre-consumer recycled plastic.
Watch the YouTube video below to see how Marriott is using compostable materials (including utensils made from potatoes) in its employee cafeterias.
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Wyndham Worldwide has kicked off WyndhamGreen, the company’s environmental and sustainability program. “As one of the world’s largest hospitality companies across six continents, Wyndham Worldwide initiated WyndhamGreen because it fits our global commitment to corporate social responsibility and the environment. WyndhamGreen is not just a program, but a way of living and working that is based on our vision and values,” stated Stephen P. Holmes, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Wyndham Worldwide.
According to the latest report (2007) by Innovest Strategic Advisors, Wyndham has a lot of room for improvement in the areas of social and environmental sustainability. From the Innovest report: “The company’s hotels generate considerable levels of (predominantly paper-based) waste and consume large amounts of electricity, which translates into carbon emissions. More proactive sector peers generate significant cost savings by minimizing electricity consumption, incorporating green building design.”
Cornell students have access to Innovest reports through the company’s Innovest Analytics web site.
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Green is no longer trendy in the hotel business – it’s almost a requirement. Eco-conscious travelers have raised their expectations and hotels have raised their standards.
The Environmental Protection Agency has announced this year’s Sustained Excellence award winner – New York City’s downtown Marriott. Maybe it was Marriott’s “spudware”, biodegradable cutlery made from potato and soy, that made the difference.
Other hotels on the list include The Fairmont in Washington, D.C. and The Orchard Garden Hotel in San Francisco. Read the full article from Forbes Traveler.
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The Willard InterContinental Hotel in Washington, D.C. has created its own sustainability report. The report covers the sustainability activity of the Willard InterContinental for the calendar year 2007, with comparisons from 2006 and 2005. As part of its sustainable development governance program, the Willard has created a sustainable development mission statement. The mission statement is: ”To model a culture that promotes sustainable development ideals and quality improvement processes that are the benchmark for the industry.” Read the full report.
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