An important step towards enhancing sustainability in the hospitality and tourism industry is the new Food and Beverage Standard of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), which is already receiving positive feedback from industry stakeholders.
The new standard stipulates, among other requirements, that businesses seeking GSTC certification must ensure that at least 30% of the main dishes and meal options they offer are plant-based or predominantly plant-based. “Primarily plant-based” is defined, according to the standard, as a food that consists of at least 95% plant-based ingredients, by weight.
GSTC is a non-profit organization founded in 2007, with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism), with the aim of promoting sustainability and social responsibility in the tourism sector.
The organization accredits independent certification bodies that assess hotels, tour operators and tourist destinations against GSTC’s global standards. Today, more than 2,000 hotels in dozens of countries and on multiple continents are GSTC certified.
As a benchmark for sustainability and excellence in the travel and tourism industry, GSTC has gathered a broad international network of members, including national and regional governments, leading travel companies, hotel groups, tour operators, non-governmental organizations, professionals and local communities, with a common goal of implementing uniform and verifiable standards of responsible and sustainable tourism.
The focus is on reducing animal ingredients
The requirement for plant-based options is included in criterion A10.8 of the new standard. According to this, when a business offers food service, it should demonstrate a clear commitment to reducing its reliance on animal-based ingredients.
In particular, for à la carte and buffet restaurants, as well as for any menu that includes multiple options, compliance is demonstrated when at least 30% of the basic options offered are of plant-based or mainly plant-based origin.
As with all GSTC standards, the new Food and Beverage (F&B) Standard is designed as a minimum level of practices that businesses should implement in order to enhance social, environmental, cultural and economic sustainability.
For hotels that already have GSTC certification or are preparing to obtain it, the new standard signals the need to evaluate their existing menu options against the new benchmark, in view of the certification or recertification processes.
“Another important step towards sustainability in tourism”
“The food and beverage services sector is located across the entire tourism value chain, and the development of the GSTC F&B Standard is another essential step in expanding the application of global sustainability standards across the tourism industry,” said the Council’s CEO, Randy Durband.
As he noted, this development reflects the collaboration and commitment of many stakeholders who participated in the standard development process and confirms GSTC’s continuous effort to promote sustainability across the tourism spectrum.
In the same vein, Nick Cooney, a member of the Board of Directors of the non-profit organization Lever Foundation, which has worked with GSTC to develop the new standard for the past two years, described the initiative as a significant development for the hospitality and travel industry.
As he mentioned, clear and measurable requirements to reduce the use of animal ingredients and increase plant-based foods offer hotel groups, restaurants and tourism F&B businesses a specific minimum level to which they can aim.
Fewer resources, lower environmental footprint
The shift towards more plant-based options is also linked to the environmental footprint of diet.
According to available research, plant-based foods require significantly fewer natural resources compared to animal proteins, while being associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions and lower land and water consumption.
At the same time, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has pointed out that plant-based foods produce significantly less food waste compared to meat and dairy products.
By incorporating a specific requirement for plant-based options into its certification framework, GSTC is attempting to move the sustainability conversation from theory to practice, in one of the most visible and directly connected to the guest experience sectors of hospitality: food and catering services.
The new direction is expected to gradually influence the design of menus in hotels and tourism businesses internationally, as sustainability becomes an increasingly measurable criterion for the certification and operation of businesses in the sector.
Source: tourismtoday.gr