We are pleased to announce a Food and Beverage Carbon Emissions calculator, which also includes Water use/ pollution and Land Impacts. Developed for the professional food and beverage production industry. The calculator is free with no usage limits.
The calculator was created for the professional restaurant, cafe and hospitality sector and provides a full Life Cycle Assessment (across farming, transport, packaging, waste, consumption) of their dishes and menus. The calculator has over 580,000 Life Cycle variables linked to over 2800 ingredients and dishes, covering greenhouse gas emissions, water use, water eco-toxicity and land impacts.
Foods can accounts for over 50% of on-site hospitality emissions in hotels and restaurants, regularly double that of scope 1 (gas and fuels) and scope 2 (purchased electricity) combined.
Adjusting menus and providing greater awareness of the environmental impact of food choices to guests, is the sustainability action within your immediate control that can make the most significant reduction in hospitality greenhouse gas emissions in the shortest amount of time.
The calculator is available on the link: https://tlcanalytics.earth/foodghg/
The chart below represents the proportion of emissions across scopes 1, 2 and 3, from a large (over 400 rooms) spa hotel resort in the UK with a mainly local/European guest profile. Beef consumption in this hotel alone represented over 32% of their total emissions with food and beverage combined at 49% of total emissions.
Food emissions in hospitality often vary according to the nationalities of their guests. EU and US diners tend to skew towards higher levels of beef consumption that has a large climate impact. While Asian and Middle Eastern guests tend to choose less climate impactful meats such as chicken.
Of interest is that beef choices (steaks and burgers) forms a larger proportion of meat dining out choices (for Europeans and Americans) compared to their diets at home. The hospitality sector is motivated to provide their guests and diners what they want. However, the dining out experience does not have to be diminished by removing items such as beef. Less climate impacting alternatives can also be offered that enhance choice and the overall dining experience. Where environmental information on menu choices has been provided it has demonstrated changes in the food choices made.
Why Include Water and Land Impacts?
The global impact of greenhouse gas emissions are regularly cited as a concern by guests, however guests and diners can be strongly influenced by the damage done to the local environment through the pollution and degradation of waterways, and to a lesser extent the loss of biodiversity on land.
Water impacts are obvious, local and immediate, and register strongly with local populations. The pollution of fresh water and drinking sources can exercise a significant public backlash to both business and politicians. Understanding and ensuring that you recognise and mitigate these risks demonstrates a strategic understanding of sustainability issues beyond just carbon emissions.
We would warmly welcome feedback to support its development and use for the hospitality industry.
