The world, and the food industry, in particular, are starting to move their focus toward more sustainable practices in recent years. This means that as a restaurant owner, you need to make sure you’re keeping up!
Bringing sustainability to your restaurant business is important, and actually pretty simple. If you want to make a change but you’re not sure where to start, here are a few ideas.
Here are the 6 Best Ides To Bringing Sustainability to Your Restaurant Business
1. Make Sustainable Swaps
A simple way to begin is by switching to using more sustainable ingredients (or even more energy-efficient cooking methods). This can be beneficial to your business too by reducing your costs.
For example, soybean oil is one of the most sustainable, bio-renewable, and abundant oils. It’s got a high smoke point making it perfect for high-temp cooking – and it’s got loads of health benefits!
2. Use More Sustainable Packaging
If you offer delivery or takeout options in your business, then focusing on eco-friendly food packaging is important. This will not only make your company more sustainable but also draw more eco-conscious customers to your business.
Consider using biodegradable or compostable materials, recyclable (or recycled) packaging or even reusable containers. Some businesses offer a discount on orders taken when customers bring their own containers, such as coffee cups, which is a great incentive.
3. Minimise Waste
Reducing food waste is a simple but very effective way to bring sustainability into the kitchen. If you’re not sure how to reduce food waste in your kitchen, start by performing a waste audit.
Try to find a use for all parts of the food items you purchase. For example, use leftover bones from meat (and even vegetable cuttings) to create stocks. Make sure to store everything correctly to avoid spoiling, and find charities or food drives where unused and uneaten meals or ingredients can be donated.
4. Offer More Plant-Based Options
There’s a lot of debate about what we should eat – keto, vegan, paleo, or a balanced diet? Regardless of what the right answer might be, there’s a huge movement towards a more plant-based diet.
Putting more vegan options on offer will not only create a more sustainable kitchen practice but also draw new customers to your business. People who are already vegan will be able to come to your restaurant, and those who might not be vegan will still be encouraged to try new, more sustainable ways of eating.
5. Recycling and Composting
We should be making an effort to reduce waste, but creating some waste is inevitable, especially in the food industry. From this also you can bring Sustainability to Your Restaurant Business.
However, it’s how we deal with this waste that matters! Get serious about your recycling efforts, and start a compost heap too. In this way, any veggie peels and other compostable waste can be put to good use, creating nutrients for growing more delicious food.
6. Optimise Delivery Services
Finally, if you offer delivery on your meals then making sure your delivery methods are sustainable will be a great help.
Consider using electric scooters for delivery instead of vehicles with an internal combustion engine. This swap will be more affordable and of course a more eco-friendly option for getting your food on the road.
