Sustainability as a recipe for success?

Environmental protection, climate protection, animal welfare and sustainable value creation are playing an increasingly important role in politics and society - also in gastronomy. What we eat, where our food comes from and what kind of waste is produced is a matter of equal concern to restaurateurs and their guests. How can concrete solutions for more sustainability in the hospitality sector look like? What experiences have restaurateurs in the context of sustainability and what can we learn from this?
Moderator René Kaplick discussed this with Dr. Anke Niederhaus from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Michelin-star chef Marco Müller, the founder of the Berlin Zero Waste Restaurant FREA, David Johannes Suchy, and Roland Brenneis from the restaurant ‘Tiroler Bauernstuben’.
In addition, Sebastian Müller, founder of the start-up HALM, a reusable glass straw, and André Richter of TooGoodToGo, an app for avoiding food waste, enriched the panel discussion with their innovative and creative solutions. Anne Hildebrand, responsible for sustainability at METRO AG, and Tim Kruppe from Hospitality Digital completed the discussion round.

The discussion was particularly intense on ways of avoiding waste and reducing the use of plastics in the hospitality sector. The pioneer in this respect is David Johannes Suchy, who almost completely avoids waste with his Zero Waste Restaurant FREA.

A key aspect of waste prevention is the use of reusable, recyclable or compostable alternatives. An example of this is the reusable glass straw ’HALM’, which is gradually gaining acceptance among guests and restaurateurs.

Michelin-star chef Marco Müller made it clear that voluntary activities by restaurateurs, customers and guests are an important step towards avoiding plastic, but that in the end tangible progress can only be achieved through political decisions:

The contribution of gastronomy to avoiding food waste was also passionately discussed. After all, the hospitality sector is the most important market for food in Germany after food retailing. Estimates by the Federal Environment Agency indicate that of the 70.5 kilograms of food that are kept available every year in the out-of-home area per person, around 23.6 kilograms are thrown away. There are many reasons for this: overproduction, miscalculation, incorrect storage, food as decoration or waste produced during cooking. Dr. Anke Niederhaus, the responsible head of department at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, has a concrete concern when it comes to avoiding food wastage in the hospitality sector:

METRO also cooperates with ‘Too Good To Go’ in order to further combat food waste. The app offers a platform that enables users to purchase overproduced dishes from restaurants that would normally be thrown away at a reduced price. The app has been online since 2015 and is regularly used by 850,000 people throughout Germany.

Inspired by the themes of the evening, the sustainable buffet was opened after the discussion. At the same time, the guests had the opportunity to inform themselves about the presented solutions at the information stands and to talk about their experiences with sustainable solutions for restaurateurs.