2 minute read
Food trends are not anything new to the restaurant community. In the last couple of years, there has been a huge increase in demanding gluten free meals and vegetarian & vegan meals. Additionally to the food trends, customers seek restaurants, which are thinking about the environment and supporting local communities instead of using imported vegetables. Offering organic goods or imported goods, can be the differentiation between the restaurant’s competitors. Here are 3 ways, how your restaurant can become more sustainable.
The most important ingredients for vegan and vegetarian meals are vegetables. People tend to buy local goods more than imported goods, as it associates with a better flavour and supporting local Maltese farmers. But how do the vegetables affect your restaurant’s sustainability? Reducing the demand for shipped goods reduces the carbon spent on moving the goods. You’re now able to tell your customers, from where exactly the ingredients are being brought in, gaining trust from visitors and a loyal customer base by the locals. The only flaw with local goods is the price point, however, offering a menu with seasonal meal options could even cut costs, as during the season, vegetables and fruit becomes even cheaper than the imported goods.
Recycling has become mandatory in Malta and your restaurant can be a part of the change by switching certain habits, for example, offer takeout pizza boxes from recycled materials. At the physical location, save energy by using motion sensors, set a specific timer for hand drying machines and use recycled napkins and toilet paper. This will not only support green energy, but will also save money on your electricity bills. Using recycled materials will deliver the sustainability message to your customers without even saying a word.
Is your restaurant still depending on a notepad? Depending on paper for your restaurant’s daily operations is not only creating unnecessary waste but is also extremely time consuming and prone to mistakes. With Lightspeed Restaurant POS you can have your orders sent directly to the kitchen, as soon as the waiter inputs the order. Immediately customize your meals depending on the customer’s wishes and analyze your revenue. Lightspeed has also partnered with Carbon Free Dining (CFD), which plants trees in the developing world, offsetting the carbon wasted on each meal. If your restaurant chooses to support the CFD initiative, it can use the restaurant point of sale system completely free of charge.
No matter the size of your restaurant and amount of daily operations, start integrating these changes one by one, for example, explore which distributor offers the most affordable recycled napkins, overview, what consumes the most electricity at the restaurant and other minor changes. This will create a strong core for a sustainable restaurant over time.
Have more questions? Contact us and our software specialists will be happy to help.
**This article was inspired by Lightspeed HQ’s article:”3 ways to run a sustainable restaurant”
