Fighting Food Waste in Airport Lounges
Sustainability remains critical in the airline industry and has only accelerated during the ongoing global pandemic. Airlines are doubling down on their commitments to become more carbon-neutral, eliminate single-use plastics and more, motivated by such factors as the decline we saw in global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 and consumer desire for more sustainable travel.
At Sodexo, we’re proud of our aggressive science-based target – a 34% reduction in absolute carbon emissions globally by 2025* – underpinned by actionable strategies to reduce emissions associated with clients’ on-site operations, like fighting food waste in the airport lounges we serve.
In the Asia-Pacific region, for example, our sustainable practices are yielding tangible results.
"Turning to a full a la carte offering as a precautionary measure during COVID-19 has reduced food waste by 30 percent."
One of the main drivers of pre-pandemic waste was guests over-selecting food items, which has now been virtually eliminated with the new service style.
Angus Mackay, Vice President of Hospitality for Airline Lounges North America, notes similar success in his region. He does not expect the service model returning to that of the traditional buffet, and cites action stations, mobile pop-ups and other customer-centric solutions as likely replacements.
"We’ve also implemented a sophisticated food management system for clients and have plans to extend it more broadly in 2021 and 2022."
Among other benefits, this system:
- Provides data and analytics offering visibility into which foods are most widely consumed
- Helps us work closely with our teams and client partners to forecast and manage production levels, based on expected and projected guest counts
- Positively impacts staff planning and enables labor management efficiencies
Mackay and Upward agree on the importance that clients and guests around the world place on sustainable living, a growing trend explored throughout our 2021 global annual culinary report, Love of Food. Lounges are investing in WasteWatch powered by LeanPath, a proprietary Sodexo program that drives actionable change. More specifically, it uses robust data that tells us what is being wasted in on-site kitchens and why, so we can then adjust our buying tendencies and help prevent food waste. We continue to exercise our own corporate responsibility efforts while aligning with our partners in North America on engaging point of sale materials that highlight our sustainable practices – like local sourcing – for guests. Our teams in the Asia-Pacific region also partner with food recovery programs regularly and look forward to continuing these activities when loosened restrictions make it safe to donate full meals once again.
As we all continue in the fight to recover from COVID-19, you can trust that we will keep exercising actionable strategies focused on fighting food waste – efforts that will continue long after the pandemic subsides.
How do we help bring sustainable solutions to airport lounges? Learn more