The suitability of eco-platforms reducing food waste for hotel food service providers: expectations and experiences
Sinisalo, Ella (2019)
Sinisalo, Ella
2019
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019111921561
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019111921561
Tiivistelmä
Food waste globally has major impacts to environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable development. The importance of the need to make changes in different industries is seen for example from the UN Sustainable Development goals and the new EU edict aiming to measure and reduce food waste. It is important for different industries such as the operators within the hospitality industry to collaborate with different companies and organizations to reduce food waste together more efficiently.
The thesis is written in collaboration with ResQ Club, a platform that is working with different food service providers with a common goal to reduce food waste. The objective in this thesis is to map out the expectations of hotel food service providers towards the platform and in addition map out experiences from hotel food service providers who are using it already. The aim is to find out the level of suitability of this platform as a method to reduce food waste, specifically in hotels in Helsinki.
The theoretical framework addresses three different topics: corporate social responsibility, food waste and its terminology and innovations in hospitality industry. The theory helps to describe the motives of companies or hotels to work more sustainable, addressing the issue of food waste, its effects and why reducing it has become more important and as well what is the role of innovations in hotels. Two research methods were conducted in this thesis: qualitative semi-structured interviews and participation observation in a food waste reducing workshop held by Motiva.
Results from the empirical research give an overview of the suitability of the platform. On an idea level, all of the respondents agree that ResQ is a good idea, however when it comes actually using it the results differ from each other. The main differences seem to be within the attitude towards it, as the economic benefits do not raise too high. What makes the experiences more profitable is when considering more the marketing and image value of the platform. The suitability highly depends on the strategies and operations of an individual hotel rather than considering the suitability on the hotel industry as a whole. The participation observation results also highlight the need the of co-operation and modern solutions that are suitable for modern food service operations.
The thesis is written in collaboration with ResQ Club, a platform that is working with different food service providers with a common goal to reduce food waste. The objective in this thesis is to map out the expectations of hotel food service providers towards the platform and in addition map out experiences from hotel food service providers who are using it already. The aim is to find out the level of suitability of this platform as a method to reduce food waste, specifically in hotels in Helsinki.
The theoretical framework addresses three different topics: corporate social responsibility, food waste and its terminology and innovations in hospitality industry. The theory helps to describe the motives of companies or hotels to work more sustainable, addressing the issue of food waste, its effects and why reducing it has become more important and as well what is the role of innovations in hotels. Two research methods were conducted in this thesis: qualitative semi-structured interviews and participation observation in a food waste reducing workshop held by Motiva.
Results from the empirical research give an overview of the suitability of the platform. On an idea level, all of the respondents agree that ResQ is a good idea, however when it comes actually using it the results differ from each other. The main differences seem to be within the attitude towards it, as the economic benefits do not raise too high. What makes the experiences more profitable is when considering more the marketing and image value of the platform. The suitability highly depends on the strategies and operations of an individual hotel rather than considering the suitability on the hotel industry as a whole. The participation observation results also highlight the need the of co-operation and modern solutions that are suitable for modern food service operations.