Hotel chain to grow its own vegetables

ONE of the world’s largest hospitality chains has announced plans to grow vegetables at 1,000 of its hotels in an attempt to cut food waste by a third.

AccorHotels, which owns the Pullman, Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis chains, is also aiming to improve energy efficiency in its buildings with the ultimate target to make them carbon neutral.

The French group intends to “reduce food waste by 30 per cent, in particular by sourcing food locally,” said chief executive Sebastien Bazin on Tuesday April 12.

The company serves over 150 million meals per year, generating 25-30 per cent of its revenue, and will now try to calculate how much is being wasted by asking its restaurants to weigh and record discarded food.

Amir Nahai, leader of Accor’s food operations, added that menus featuring up to 40 main courses would be reduced in size.

He said: “In the future we’re going to have menus with 10, 15 or 20 main courses, with more local products. We are also going to support urban agriculture with the creation of 1,000 vegetable gardens in our hotels by 2020.”

AccorHotels claims to have reduced water consumption by almost 9 per cent, energy by 5.3 per cent and carbon emissions by 6.2 per cent in its most previous five-year environmental plan.