Aline feels strongly that we need to do more to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food. She explains that around one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption gets wasted each year. Most ends up in landfill and produces large amounts of methane, a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon. She says that despite this fact, food waste is often an overlooked topic in the hotel industry, arguably one of the biggest buyers of food in the tourism sector.

She says she feels hopeful when she sees hotels making progress in this area during audits, telling us about a large Thai property that converts oyster shells and pineapple trimmings into cleaning products, reducing both waste and the use of harmful chemicals. This was one of many food initiatives they implemented that ultimately saved them almost 300kg of food per day. They also partnered with a local NGO to find ways to use their surplus food and the hotel now helps to provide around 3,000 meals each day to low-income residents of Bangkok. 

Aline believes that implementing sustainability into a business comes down to the three core principles of management, measuring and communication. She has some simple tips and advice for any business, in any sector, that wants to operate in a more responsible way and believe this starts with engaging staff. For example, creating a ‘green team’ with managers taking the lead and suggesting improvements relating to their particular work area. These improvements should be turned into sustainability polices that are promoted to staff and other stakeholders.

She says that staff engagement is an essential ingredient for success. That means training employees about the importance of sustainability and how to incorporate it into their day-to-day work. Challenging employees to come up with new ideas helps them to take ownership of initiatives and develops a sense of pride in your achievement, and she reminds employers to acknowledge the efforts of their staff.