The intersection of aspiration and reality often conjures up a visual image that evokes a busy roundabout funneling traffic.
Commonplace in some countries, U.S. drivers tend to find roundabouts a little more difficult to maneuver when initially encountering them in their local communities. Everyone needs to be thoughtful and patient in order to arrive at their destination safely and in a timely manner. A similar scenario applies to sustainability in the foodservice industry.
The myriad sustainability-related mandates and initiatives that intersect with the foodservice industry can make it challenging for operators and the connecting businesses that support them to navigate the streets to effective and efficient design and more. Indeed, these cross-traffic issues require operators and their supply chain partners to have state-of-the-art GPS to successfully make their way to the sustainability fast-lane.
In a December 2023 survey on sustainability, FE&S readers clearly report having more frequent sustainability-related discussions, but those eco-friendly initiatives often do not make it out of their parking spots. What’s blocking the lane? Perhaps not surprisingly, infrastructure and cost were cited as frequent roadblocks. Forty-three percent of respondents indicate that budget constraints often reduce financial investments in the kitchen space; additionally, 34% contend initial cost of equipment is a reason sustainability initiatives become engineered out of projects.
Still, the fact that eco-friendly/sustainability initiatives remain prevalent in discussions represents a good thing for the environment. Results were close to split on the subject now being a routine part of project conversations. Just slightly more than half, 51%, lean toward the topic occurring either routinely or half of the time: 24% said it is a consideration in at least half of their projects and 17% said the subject comes up in nearly every project.
The short of it is this: Saying you want a project to be sustainable is often easier than actually making that come to fruition for a variety of reasons running from funding to infrastructure to consumer preferences to bandwidth and more. Still, despite these challenges, the industry continues to slowly accelerate its sustainability efforts. And much like navigating a roundabout, progress oftentimes is not linear. With that in mind, FE&S has dedicated this issue to sustainability. Members of the foodservice community discuss what’s working, what opportunities they see ahead and more.
As always, the goal here is to educate and inspire the readers of FE&S.
