There is no doubt that in today’s world, customers are more willing to engage in activities that favor the planet. A report by the 2023 NielsenIQ global consumer survey states that 88% of global consumers are willing to pay more for a product or service that offers features like sustainability. The food industry is not far behind. Nowadays, more people are looking for restaurants that value the planet and avoid worsening the environment as much as possible. Due to the eco-conscious policy of institutions, businesses, brands, and consumers, restaurants have an opportunity to boost their business through green policy and ecological behavior. More and more conscious customers are willing to support and promote environmentally friendly companies, products, and services since they believe in the philosophy behind it, and, furthermore, it benefits the planet as a whole. Overall, a business-wise perspective would benefit from adopting eco-friendly measures due to environmental necessity and marketing purposes, as environmental protection is seen as trendy and affluent nowadays, despite it being for real.
The Importance of Sustainability: A Win-Win for the Environment and Your Business
For those who want to support restaurants prioritizing sustainability, it won’t suffice to ‘feel good’ about or buy into the latest trend. Instead, you can consider the real-world environmental benefits. In fact, every action that reduces food waste – sending used cooking oil to be recycled into biofuel, saving unused baked goods from being tossed away, repurposing stale bread bits into sandwich croutons, finding alternative ways to put off-grade produce or leftovers to good use – provides an immediate environmental boon in the form of reduced methane emissions from landfills. Using local ingredients instead of transporting food thousands of miles reduces carbon-intensive transport emissions. Installing energy-saving appliances and water-efficiency fixtures saves valuable resources.
These green practices are good for business. According to a 2023 study by Cone Communications [2], 83 percent of people worldwide will consider switching brands because of the company’s environmental and social responsibility approach. When your restaurant promotes its sustainability practices, it can signal your brand to eco-conscious eaters, thereby enticing and, ultimately, retaining new consumers. 3. Attractive to staff When restaurants talk about their eco-friendliness, staff nowadays are encouraged by their employer. According to a recent employee poll from Sykes [3], 85 percent of workers said it was important to them that their employer prioritizes sustainability or that they work for a company with environmentally friendly practices. This could be the key to attracting and retaining top talent at your restaurant. Sustainability equals the success of your company and genuinely enhances your staff’s performance. To learn more about recruiting staff who are motivated by sustainability, we recommend the Blog Success Stories: How Sustainability Attracts Staff to Your Restaurant. 4. Improves restaurant cleaning Your restaurant is clean: you share this fact as part of your brand identity. Therefore, it’s understandable that you want to avoid using toxic chemicals so that your restaurant is ready now in case anyone out there wants to include sustainable cleaning practices on their list. According to the American Cleaning Institute (ACI) [4], there is a growing market for sustainable and green cleaning products: ‘Global, inclusive forecasts anticipate the green chemistry segment within disinfectants and cleaning & sanitizing agents will rise at a compounded annual rate of 22 percent through 2025.’
Sustainable Practices for Restaurants: Making a Difference, One Bite at a Time
Here’s a summary of many of the eco-friendly ways that restaurants can do their bit to create a greener, healthier world:
Reduce Food Waste Food waste is one of the largest environmental problems, attributed to as much as 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions at a global level [3]. Easy steps for restaurants to reduce food waste include offering small plate options with the ability to upsize if needed, offering a ‘family-style’ or sharing option for larger parties, and creatively repurposing unused items into specials. (Discover ways to reduce food waste in your restaurant with our blog on ‘How to reduce food waste in your restaurant’.) Using local ingredients: This reduces food miles and the CO2 emissions created by the food’s transport, as well as helping you feel closer to your community. Plus, it should taste better for your customers. Water saving: Restaurants can take the initiative to reduce their water consumption by adopting low-flush toilets and low-flow faucets and dishwashers, repairing leaking fixtures immediately, and providing water only upon customers’ request. Energy efficiency: Invest in energy-efficient appliances and LED lighting to reduce your restaurant’s energy consumption. Take advantage of off-peak hours to perform work that
requires high energy consumption. Sustainable packaging: As a customer concerned about the environment, opting for biodegradable or compostable containers instead of standard plastic take-out vessels will lessen your impact on landfills and demonstrate your commitment to environmental responsibility.
Building a Sustainable Brand Identity: Communicating Your Commitment
Eco-conscious choices behind the scenes are only half the challenge; your audience needs to know how grassland restoration or water resource management is part of your story. Put Your Sustainability On Full Display: Feature your sustainability on your website, menus, and social media platforms. Tell stories about your local farmers, your water savings, or your compost. Work with Local Eco-Friendly Businesses: Team up with other local farms, farmers’ markets, or environmentalist groups to share goods and services connected to similar groups. Connect with other fellow green business people and share resources. By joining forces with other greens, you are showing your environmental credentials to a new stream of customers, while these customers can enjoy a wider choice of eco-products and services. Offer Incentives for Sustainable Choices: Give customers a discount when they bring their own reusable containers for take-out or reward the occasional diner who opts for vegetarian or vegan dishes. Write your Restaurant’s Sustainability Mission Statement: A mission statement that succinctly outlines your restaurant’s commitment to sustainability will subconsciously resonate with your customers and serve as a powerful guiding principle as you undertake other sustainability initiatives. (Need help writing a compelling sustainability mission statement for your restaurant? See our blog post on ‘Creating a sustainability mission statement for your restaurant’)
Conclusion
Eco-friendly practices are not just a trend. Today, they’re a core corporate responsibility for companies of all sizes – especially for restaurants, which find themselves in perhaps the most eco-conscious era yet. Ultimately, eco-friendly practices position restaurants to leave a smaller carbon footprint, gain new followers, and bolster the brand. The payoff: a cleaner planet, a
prosperous business, and a grateful customer base that will gobble up your green (that is, sustainable) goodies. So, whenever you’re ready to start on this path for your restaurant, here are more blog posts throughout this article to help you along the way.
