How Embracing Sustainability can Boost Your Restaurant’s Bottom Line

1. Can you explain how embracing sustainability can have a positive impact on a restaurant’s bottom line? 

Customers care about sustainability – strong credentials give you a highly desirable and relevant talking point, build positive associations with your brand and encourage customers to come. You can even use your sustainability as part of a drive to increase customer loyalty; one good example from the UK pub industry is Planet BrewDog.

Today’s staff care about sustainability, too. Doing this work will encourage potential employees to choose your restaurant for their new role, while paying fairly and looking after their wellbeing – important parts of any company’s social sustainability work – will aid retention. Don’t forget that recruiting and training new team members costs much more than retaining existing staff.

In terms of cost reductions, decreasing your food waste can have a big impact. You can do this through improved recipe management (accurate recipes, portion sizes, purchasing par levels, storage, making best use of products across a range of recipes, seasonal menu changes) and monitoring the causes of waste in your establishment. Similarly, you’ll see reduced energy costs through switching to energy efficient equipment, fittings and practices, and – if you live in a country where you’re charged for water use – reduced water costs as your business becomes more water-aware.

Even sustainable menu development has a positive financial impact. Serving more plant-based dishes reduces ordering costs, as meat or fish protein is almost always more expensive than plant-based. Focusing on local and seasonal sourcing will lower your transportation costs while also supporting the local economy; building strong relationships with suppliers in your area will also ensure quality products that can change with the seasons. Plus, customers are more interested in provenance than ever before, so this is a nice way to help your menu stand out. Strong sustainability credentials also allow for premium pricing; consider how much more expensive organic and FairTrade products are in the retail market.

2. What’s the number one action that F&B businesses should take when it comes to managing costs through sustainability?

Having a detailed focus on menu management is key. Here are a few ways to go about this:

• Aim for a combination of margin products with accurate recipes to ensure reduced waste. 
• Monitor purchasing levels based on the rate of sale (to avoid wastage through out-of-date food) and try to use products in more than one menu item.
• Measure what comes back from the customer (both physical waste and feedback) to be sure that your portion sizes are right. 

3. Conversely, how can taking a more conscious approach to spending improve your sustainability?

If you’re careful about keeping your energy and water costs down – through staff training and instilling best practice behaviours, monitoring and analysing data to look for potential improvements and/or investing in more efficient appliances and fittings – you’ll be improving your sustainability as you do so. This just makes sense across the board.

4. With costs increasing across the board, how can restaurants still provide value for money to the customer?

It’s all about value – but that doesn’t necessarily mean cheap. Serving beautiful local and seasonal produce, thoughtfully prepared, will be able to justify a premium. Including a good mixture of protein types (meat, fish and plant-based) will allow for a range of pricing whilst also ensuring quality and value in every dish.

5. Do you have any advice for how restaurants can communicate with their customers about the real costs behind the food on their plates?

It’s so important to give customers the story – talk about your local and small producers, why you choose to work with seasonal ingredients, etc. Use your website, social media and even your menu itself to share the good things about what’s behind the pricing. This storytelling helps to explain a premium in a positive way and frames your restaurant experience as a real treat for the customer.

6. What innovative systems solutions do you envision for maximising profitability and lowering costs while sourcing sustainable foods for restaurants within urban environments?

Even in urban environments there are smaller local producers doing amazing things – you just need to search them out! Aim to build strong relationships with these suppliers and they will work with you to produce and deliver quality food. Starting a ripple effect through the supply chain is also a powerful way to effect change; encourage distributors to think about their producers and encourage them to do better when it comes to waste, packaging, carbon emissions, water use, etc. In this way, we can improve sustainability throughout the entire food chain.

Discover how your business can measure, improve and celebrate your sustainability credentials through the Food Made Good Standard!