Courtesy/News Source: greenlodgingnews.com

BANGKOK—Building on the success of the UN’s International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (IY2017) initiative and in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), PATA, along with its project partner, Scholars of Sustenance (Thai-SOS) and knowledge partner Futouris, is launching the BUFFET Campaign to raise awareness of food waste in the tourism industry to drive positive change.

The BUFFET (Building an Understanding For Food Excess in Tourism) Initiative is about bringing together a coalition of industry partners and PATA members to create and implement a campaign that challenges the industry, particularly the hospitality sector, to reduce food waste to landfill.

PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy said, “With significant growth expected in the industry and especially the Asia Pacific region in the near future, greater waste can be expected. Our aim is to curb that waste by bringing the tourism and hospitality sectors together to reduce our impact on the planet by reducing our industry’s food waste to landfill. Reducing food waste will reduce the cost for operators in the industry while benefiting the environment at the same time.”

Raising Awareness of Food Waste

The main activities in this initiative include the raising awareness of food waste in the industry and the creation of Asia-Pacific focused resources for hoteliers and other hospitality and tourism professionals to drive positive change and ultimately reduce their food waste to landfill. While this initiative aims to impact the industry at large, it will be focusing additional efforts on hotels and food and beverage providers in Asia, and specific hotel properties in Bangkok in the Bangkok Hotels Project, with the expertise of Thai-SOS.

PATA is seeking to engage further with hotels that would like to reduce their food waste to landfill, hotels already implementing food waste solutions, potential partners and sponsors, as well as those who would like to help in raising awareness and building a better understanding for food excess in tourism.

With increasing concern of the world for climate change, food waste has come increasingly under attention in recent years and for good reason:

• Food waste is the third biggest contributor to climate change;
• One-third of all foods produced in the world is wasted;
• Additional pressures arise from GHG emissions caused by food production and transportation; and
• Right now, 842 million people do not have enough to eat and with an estimated world population of 9.8 billion people in 2050 resources will be limited and more people will be hungry.