Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles that discusses what sustainability means to caterers and their communities; part one looked at supply side sustainability and part two looked at demand side sustainability.
We’ve already discussed supply and demand side sustainability variables. Now it’s time to review some other areas that influence how individual caterers can impact the overall sustainability of the industry.
Corporate sustainability
The operational policies and procedures of any given catering company can (and do) have an impact on its carbon footprint.
Delivery policies: Every delivery represents both a financial expense and a negative impact on the environment. Outbound deliveries are (of course) necessary for offpremise caterers, but there are tools to make these more efficient and less environmentally costly. These include fleet management and GPS routing systems for vehicles, delivery scheduling programs, and pricing to encourage off-peak deliveries and pick-ups.
Servingware offerings: There has always been a conflict between those who advocate for use of disposables, and those who promote use of permanent serving pieces (i.e., china, silver, and glass). Single use items seem to be wasteful by definition, but there are costs associated with permanent items as well, such as pickup and warewashing expenses. There are also concerns about minimizing the use of plastics, but there are many lines of sustainable servingware options available.
Food waste: It is commonly accepted that about one-third of food is lost to waste in production. This is catastrophic for the planet— particularly when, even in a wealthy country like the United States, a substantial number of people are food insecure. In the catering sector, food waste is endemic in two areas: on the event level and in production.
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Event food waste: Food waste has always been a challenge for caterers of all types, but most specifically for buffet specialists. Since caterers are loathe to allow buffets to look sparse, even for the last guest through the line, this has always been a challenge. But there are workarounds for this issue, such as providing to-go boxes—not just for clients, but also for guests. Other options include scheduling an employee meal at the end of a shift to use up leftovers, and/or arranging for pickups of leftovers by food banks or soup kitchens. Some caterers even allow clients to designate a charitable recipient for leftovers on their behalf.
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Production food waste: Some caterers have set a goal of zero waste from their commissary production, meaning that the only residual outputs besides food sent to events would be compost and recycling. This is naturally a challenge, but with the help of some new technologies and careful product selection, it may be achievable. The technologies include a combination of hardware and software, including scales, cameras, and advanced cooking technologies such as low temperature cook and hold ovens and combination oven steamers. On the software side, advances in artificial intelligence (check out the Fall issue of Special Events magazine for a deeper look at AI) just in the past several years have been applied to enterprise systems to help identify, track, and minimize waste in production. These combined hardware/ software systems, while requiring a substantial initial investment, can pay back based on minimized waste in just a few years.
Community sustainability
Every caterer, particularly those specializing in full-service events, depends on a community of stakeholders for support and success. These stakeholders include rental companies, food and beverage vendors, professional services providers, employees, contract workers, venues, clients, and others. We have seen many caterers make it part of their ongoing dialogue with these community members to encourage them to be attuned to the sustainability dynamic as well. For example, some caterers have agreed to consolidate rental orders with catering deliveries to minimize truck miles to their events. Others have encouraged their wedding clients to change the default entrée selection(s) to emphasize plantforward options.
Other community examples include making sustainable, non-plastic servingware a standard for delivery catering; encouraging staff to carpool by offering gas subsidies to the drivers; and working with venue managers to help minimize utility costs.
All these efforts, as well as many others not covered here, are designed to help maximize both the perception and the reality of sustainability in the catering industry. This will help diminish the concerns of clients and guests who are concerned about the environment.
A recent article in the New York Post states that two-thirds of Americans believe sustainability should be the default for companies. This indicates that this preference for sustainability is widely held and should be the model for the catering industry as it navigates the future of the planet.
