environmental strategies for hospitality companies

Introduction

This page concerns environmental strategies for companies whose primary activity is selling food and drink for immediate consumption.

It therefore includes bars, cafes, restaurants, fast food outlets, takeaways and vending machine operators.

Whether or not taking action on the environment is worth doing right now will depend primarily upon the moral stance of your staff and management and, perhaps most importantly, the impact on demand for your services.

The usual starting point is for us to create a tailor-made Environmental Strategy Report for your company, to serve as a framework within which you can outline your ambitions, quantify your emissions and assess progress on your various positive actions.

The second part of the process is the attainment of carbon certification, the primary mechanism through which you can broadcast your environmental achievements.

Carbon certification is usually achieved through the purchase of carbon credits (most commonly from tree-planting projects), with the required quantity being determined by the annual calculation of your emissions and the level of certification that you select.

With the potential for very high visibility and immediate impact in this sector, some hospitality companies are making great headway from placing positive environmental messaging at the core of their brand.

For hospitality companies there are three levels of certification.

Carbon aware

Carbon aware is the entry level certification. It tends to work well for companies which are just getting started with the whole process and want to keep their initial expenditure to a minimum.

Being carbon aware means that you simply offer your customers the option to offset the carbon footprint of the hospitality products that they buy from you, which typically adds around 0.2-0.8% to the invoice value.

If a customer chooses not to take up the offsetting option, the product’s carbon debt remains unpaid.

This type of certification is rarely worth considering for hospitality companies, since customers tend not to react positively to a visible carbon surcharge being added to their bill (in addition to the usual service charge), even if it is optional.

If you think this might work for you, then let’s discuss it. In the meantime we will move on to other more commonly recommended options .

Carbon neutral certification

Carbon Neutral is the most popular level of certification amongst hospitality companies and is suited to a very wide range of forward-thinking brands.

Being carbon neutral means that you offset the carbon footprint of your company infrastructure, but you do not take responsibility for the carbon generated by your product (which remains the responsibility of your consumers).

It’s a great place for most companies to start, usually being simple to achieve and relatively low cost.

Carbon neutral status is achieved through the payment of an annual fee, based upon our assessment of your carbon footprint.

For a hospitality company, that typically includes your carbon emissions resulting from your office, indirect staff and associated extras.

It does not usually include carbon emissions resulting from the creation and delivery of your products, including your retail outlets (restaurants etc.), direct staff, product raw materials, preparation and delivery costs.

Depending on your brand, products and customer expectations, you may also choose to offer your customers the chance to offset the carbon footprint of the products that they buy from you. This can be done in on the voluntary basis described in the Carbon Aware section above or on the more onerous way described in the Carbon Free section below. But this is not an obligation under Carbon Neutral certification.

When it comes to guide prices for the first year, the Environmental Action Report typically works out around GBP 1000 / USD 3600 per million turnover. You may also like us to assist with implementing your Surcharge Process for around GBP 1000 / USD 1200. These costs tend to be around 70% lower in subsequent years.

Carbon free

Carbon Free is the highest level of certification.

It is usually associated with companies which have environmental values deeply embedded in their brand strategy and whose customers who are highly responsive to positive environmental messaging.

For the right type of hospitality company, carbon free status can be a very powerful motivating factor for customers, delivering commercial advantages which far outweigh the relatively modest costs.

Going carbon free means that you take full responsibility for the carbon footprints created by both your company infrastructure and the hospitality products that you sell.

The infrastructure footprint is usually offset by the direct purchase of carbon credits by the company.

The product footprint can be charged to the customer visibly or invisibly on their invoices, or simply wrapped into the prices and paid directly by the company.

For hospitality companies we usually recommend adding ‘invisible’ carbon supplements to your invoices, typically adding around 0.2-0.8% of the total value. Visible surcharges (compulsory, opt-out and opt-in) are also possible, but tend not to work well in this sector.

It is usual to pay for the offsetting of you infrastructure up front, but the offsetting of the product is usually done retrospectively at the end of a convenient accounting period, after you have received payment from your customers. So it’s actually cash positive.

The required number of tropical trees will be planted in advance, so there’s no delay in getting your carbon sequestration underway.

When it comes to guide prices for the first year, the Environmental Action Report typically works out around GBP 1000 / USD 3600 per million turnover. If you choose to go Carbon Neutral, that usually falls in the range GBP 275-525 / USD 330-630 per employee, depending on your level of emissions. These costs tend to be around 70% lower in subsequent years.

Next section

Services and costs

In this article we describe the services that we offer and the process through which we would guide you, on the way to fulfilling your environmental ambitions.