Hilton has chosen to partner for this initiative with Klimato, a firm specialising in helping businesses understand the climate impact of their menus and communicate this to customers.
The company provides software which calculates the impact of each recipe, with this information then being presented on menus using their standardised graphic – a small circle, filled green to represent the amount of carbon emitted by a dish. The lower the green line in the circle, the lower the impact, giving diners an at-a-glance report on their choices.
The system was used at the COP26 conference in Glasgow in late 2021, as Klimato worked with conference catering partners Levy UK and Ireland to grade each item on the menu in just a few weeks.
Klimato can also work with partners to track their emissions over time, spotting trends in customer behaviour and adjusting menus accordingly, as well as partner with gold-standard offsetting firms to balance any unavoidable emissions.
The carbon labelling of menus forms part of Hilton’s wider “Travel with Purpose” programme. The firm states that this strategy will help them to “drive responsible travel and tourism globally” and “create positive environmental and social impact across our operations, supply chain, and communities” as the world continues to address climate change.
This month, it was revealed that Hilton’s “Green Breakfast” initiative – an industry leading pilot across 13 UAE hotels in partnership with Winnow and ne’ma, the UAE national food loss and waste initiative – resulted in a 62 per cent reduction in food waste, serving as a blueprint for food waste management in the hospitality industry.
by Nick Hendry | GLOBETRENDER