Reducing Food Waste: Dr Carlos Martin-Rios from EHL Hospitality Business School On How They Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste
Food waste has become a challenge for society. In fact, according to estimates by FAO and by WWF, between 1.3–2.5 billion tons of food goes uneaten each year. Approximately 40% of all the food grown annually is wasted. To that end, the United Nations has put forward SDG Target 12.3 “to halve food waste and reduce food loss by 2030.”
Every single individual has good ideas. And some of those ideas are very disruptive and useful for these types of changes. We should be open to embracing a more collaborative approach.
It has been estimated that each year, more than 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to more than $160 billion worth of food thrown away each year. At the same time, in many parts of the United States, there is a crisis caused by people having limited access to healthy & affordable food options. The waste of food is not only a waste of money and bad for the environment, but it is also making vulnerable populations even more vulnerable.
Authority Magazine started a new series called “How Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies and Food Companies Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste.” In this interview series, we are talking to leaders and principals of Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies, Food Companies, and any business or nonprofit that is helping to eliminate food waste, about the initiatives they are taking to eliminate or reduce food waste.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Carlos Martin-Rios, professor at EHL Hospitality Business School. Dr Martin-Rios has also worked at a number of other respected higher education institutions including Rutgers University and University of Maine in the USA, and University Carlos III of Madrid in Spain. His teaching includes CSR and sustainable innovations as well as organisational leadership.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
As professor of Management, I have always been interested in the “human side” of business. For years I focused my research on so-called non-technological innovations. These types of innovations have a strong human component, like improving work practices and workplaces, fostering internal and external collaboration by means of giving people higher responsibility and decision-making autonomy, or addressing changes in business organization, including CSR, values and ethics. Back then, my research fitted squarely within what we define today as ‘social sustainability’.
At one point in my career, I wanted to widen the nature of my research questions. What are the larger implications of what I study? How might the findings of my work be important for practice and policy, not only for theory and future research? I developed a broader perspective on the interface between organizational studies and environmental sciences. It felt natural for me to direct my academic endeavours to addressing sustainability in organizations.
And we all know that food is at the core of our lives. Food is a universal given: an expression of culture, nature and history. Food causes changes in life expectancy, human health and the sustainability of environmental systems. Global food value chains play a particularly important role in shaping global food production and consumption patterns. Current unsustainable trends in food systems underscore the need for more research to address this massive societal challenge of our time. Sustainability is way more than just the environment. It is the present and the future of our business. We can no longer afford to live in a non-sustainable world. This has been clearly shown during the Covid-19 pandemic, where we were confronted with the food value chain, the problems with food waste and all the social issues that this crisis brought with it: people out of work, bad work conditions, impact on quality of life of nations and communities. We have to embrace sustainability and put it at the centre of our strategy.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company or organization?
I have been a professor at EHL Hospitality Business School since 2014. Over the course of these years, I have witnessed a “quiet revolution” in our students’ values, priorities and concerns regarding sustainability. A revolution that is still unfolding and that has profound implications for everyone: the management of the school, faculty, staff, and also for broader hospitality management education.
It is a mystifying revolution that, unlike previous movements (e.g., digitalization or inclusion and diversity), it is not top-down driven but a bottom-up social force. As with most change processes, there is always resistance from certain people. But the strength and urgency of change is more persuasive than the arguments of those resistant to change.
Let me share an example to illustrate the force of change that students are bringing to the university. Back in 2019, I organized a panel discussion with three senior leaders from top service organizations. The topic of the discussion was innovation and the need to foster it in the service sector. It was a huge success, over 500 students attended the event. For the first time, we used a Q&A platform to allow students to ask questions live. It was pre-Covid, so people were less familiar with this type of software to engage with an audience. Students posed over 100 questions. We were overwhelmed by the number of questions popping up on the screen.
Over half of the questions were directly related to sustainability topics. Questions like “How to innovate to bring sustainability into a business?”, “What is [name of the company] actually doing for sustainability?”, “How long is it going to take our industry to become sustainable?” In my role of moderator, I asked the guests to select the questions they felt more pertinent to answer. At one point, the Chief Officer of one of the largest hospitality firms concluded: “You ask the right questions, but we do not have answers yet. Please bear with us.” That exchange revealed the fact that something powerful was happening before our eyes.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
I often discuss with students what they can do for sustainability. They feel overwhelmed and powerless as much as empowered and enraged. They want to contribute but do not know if they are ready to put their skills and competencies to good use. Life is a matter of choices and I remind them of Frost´s poem: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. What exactly are we talking about when we refer to food waste?
Food waste has become a challenge for society. In fact, according to estimates by FAO and by WWF, between 1.3–2.5 billion tons of food goes uneaten each year. Approximately 40% of all the food grown annually is wasted. To that end, the United Nations has put forward SDG Target 12.3 “to halve food waste and reduce food loss by 2030.”
Can you help articulate a few of the main causes of food waste?
Food waste and loss occurs all along the food value chain. Food waste refers to the food lost or wasted in subsequent stages of the food supply chain intended for human consumption, from initial production down to final household consumption. The decrease may be accidental or intentional, but ultimately leads to less food available for all.
Academics and practitioners have developed several tools for preventing and managing food surplus and waste. The food waste hierarchy is among the more popular methods for the management of food waste. The food waste hierarchy exemplifies practices ranging from inferior ways of dealing with waste (i.e., disposal) to superior waste practices and approaches to wastage (i.e., prevention). Prevention is the most attractive, forward-looking and innovative option. It involves minimization of food surplus and avoids food waste. Re-use or distribution of food surplus for human consumption, including groups affected by food poverty, is the second most attractive option.
We need to highlight the opportunities that come at a moment in time where sustainability has become a critical aspect of all the way we do business. We need clear managerial guidelines by means of sustainable practices, including food waste management for prevention. Introducing them will help professionals to become more innovative and put these management strategies in place.
Looking at those activities at the end of food value chain, the contradiction is even more evident. Food is at the core business of retail, hospitality and food service sectors. Yet, these activities are big on waste. It is urgent to develop solutions against food waste in these industries. In a nutshell, a resilient food service sector cannot exist without a new managerial mindset. This has been my focus of research for the last 10 years: looking at how can we help food service managers, operators and chains to become more adept in professionalizing not only what they do so well in terms of bringing food to customers and making a wonderful food experience — but also the way they manage their businesses, whether restaurants, canteens, caterings or grocery stores.
What are a few of the obstacles that companies and organizations face when it comes to distributing extra or excess food? What can be done to overcome those barriers?
It is a matter of building bridges across businesses around the goal of avoiding wastage. For example, restaurant stakeholders should join forces to facilitate collaboration and foster innovation. It requires bringing people together: kitchen, dining room, management, suppliers, distributors, etc. Let’s forget the “Me” as the owner/manager, use “Me” as all the different associates together. Let’s work together.
Let’s open up communication channels among all the different associates. Every single individual has good ideas. And some of those ideas are very disruptive and useful for these types of changes. We should be open to embracing a more collaborative approach, letting people participate and sharing what we think, fear, expect, how we anticipate the future will be, and make everyone part of this new adventure.
Can you describe a few of the ways that you or your organization are helping to reduce food waste?
At EHL Group, we make it a mission to educate future industry leaders to be conscious of sustainability and ethical issues. EHL first raises awareness about sustainability during students’ Bachelor preparatory year — and all throughout the curriculum — by raising issues that are salient in the hospitality industry such as waste management, local food, responsible consumption, packaging and recycling.
In addition, all three of our EHL Campuses in Switzerland and Singapore have initiatives showcased on site to reduce food waste and inspire our students. The EHL Campus Passugg, which offers a Major in Culinary Arts, has been a long-term partner of United Against Waste where joint projects such as Food Waste Management workshops and testing of the Food Save App. This app is an important source of inspiration for students, providing valuable impulses for the optimization of kitchen processes, design of offerings and most importantly, recycling of leftover food.
On the EHL Lausanne campus, in 2021, we turned our attention to reducing food waste. We have brought in external consultants and software tools to evaluate the types of food waste created in our cafeterias and kitchens. EHL Lausanne campus already has a food waste digester which generates biogas and a small waste disposal site where recyclable items are collected.
As of 2021, we began analyzing the contents of our Michelin-starred training restaurant, Le Berceau des Sens, kitchen waste through a partnership with KITRO, a startup created by two EHL alumni, consisting of an artificial intelligence tool that photographs, identifies and records every discarded food item. The resulting report details the weight and total cost of our monthly kitchen food waste, days of the week when the most waste is produced, top wasted menu items and more. While showing us that most of our current food waste is not usable food trimmings, the results still helped us to find new uses for items that were previously going to waste. For example, some herbs that cannot serve as toppings anymore — but are still fresh and edible — can be reused in some recipes in our Food Court. Since 2022, we have expanded the use of KITRO to assess the food waste of the food court.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help address the root of this problem?
Food waste management involves a wide range of stakeholders at societal and market levels. Institutional players include political parties, NGOs and think-tanks. In their ability to pass new policies and regulations, new waste management regulations in many countries have become stricter and have shifted focus on waste minimization and the circular economy (reusing and recycling). For example, the EU has recently passed regulations to ban landfills. Companies in New York State have tax incentives to recycle. Other countries like Switzerland and Germany have a tax for waste, and France has made doggy-bags mandatory. Society at large plays a decisive role in demanding sustainable solutions to companies as much as in adopting more sustainable food consumption patterns. We cannot forget that the largest share of food waste (53% of all waste) happens at the consumption stage. Studies estimate food waste data per household at approximately 150 kg per year or 52 kg of food waste per person.
Are there other leaders or organizations who have done good work to address food waste? Can you tell us what they have done? What specifically impresses you about their work?
Our students and alumni are taking the lead:
· EHL students Chiang Dinh-Khai Nguyen and Samuel Indermühle launched a student project to reduce food waste called LeftLovers, in partnership with Grand Resort Bad Ragaz. The students worked with Bad Ragaz chefs to capture food trimmings and peelings that would have otherwise gone to waste, and converted them into tasty meals. For example, the leftovers from the hotel’s buffet were turned into pizza. These meals were served at a pop-up restaurant, LeftLovers at Bad Ragaz, over the summer in 2021.
As mentioned, two of our alumni have founded KITRO, a device using AI driven solution to reduce food waste, made by an artificial intelligence tool that photographs, identifies and records every discarded food item.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
I publish frequently articles on Hospitality News & Business insights by EHL, and on LinkedIn.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
