How to implement sustainable food systems in Southeast Asian hospitality

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo sum­mar­ises the case stud­ies shared and les­sons learned at a recent event about sus­tain­able food sys­tems organ­ised by the Asso­ci­ation of South­east Asi­an Social Enter­prises for Train­ing in Hos­pit­al­ity & Cater­ing (ASSET‑H&C).

ASSET‑H&C is “GT” Insight Partner.

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Where to start?

Food waste, if it were a nation, would rank as the third-largest glob­al emit­ter of green­house gases, fol­low­ing only the USA and China (FAO, 2015). To address this issue, under­stand­ing sus­tain­able food sys­tems is cru­cial, as is motiv­at­ing all stake­hold­ers in the food chain — from farm­er to con­sumer — to min­im­ise waste.

The recent “Sus­tain­able Food Sys­tem in Hos­pit­al­ity: Where to start?” con­fer­ence by the Asso­ci­ation of South­east Asi­an Social Enter­prises for Train­ing in Hos­pit­al­ity & Cater­ing (ASSET‑H&C) net­work brought togeth­er pion­eers and experts in sus­tain­able tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity in South­east Asia, shed­ding light on sus­tain­able food sys­tems and inspir­ing stake­hold­ers toward a green­er future. 

This “GT” Insight is a sum­mary of what we learned.

Learning is key to sustainable food systems

Col­lab­or­at­ive efforts among gov­ern­ment bod­ies, NGOs, and part­ners are cru­cial for address­ing any sus­tain­ab­il­ity chal­lenge. But edu­ca­tion plays a key role. 

At our con­fer­ence, there was unan­im­ous agree­ment on the need to con­tinu­ously raise aware­ness about sus­tain­able prac­tices. That starts by intro­du­cing the prin­ciples of sus­tain­ab­il­ity and waste man­age­ment in early child­hood and it goes all the way through to updat­ing estab­lished industry stake­hold­ers on best practices. 

Indi­vidu­al con­sumers can con­trib­ute by con­sid­er­ing eth­ic­al, social, and eco­lo­gic­al factors along­side eco­nom­ic con­sid­er­a­tions, lead­ing to a reduc­tion in food waste. Com­mu­nic­at­ing and edu­cat­ing con­sumers is a top pri­or­ity for suc­cess­ful models.

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” con­tent tagged ‘Edu­ca­tion and train­ing’

Responsible food production for economic resilience

Address­ing urgent chal­lenges in the food industry requires provid­ing eco­nom­ic incent­ives at every stage of the food chain. 

Marou Faiseurs de Chocol­at exem­pli­fies this hav­ing built a com­munity of more than 500 cocoa farm­ers com­mit­ted to sus­tain­able prac­tices. Marou offers high­er prices to these farm­ers and util­ise a trans­par­ent tra­cing app for each of their bean bags. 

To motiv­ate farm­ers to switch to per­ma­cul­ture prac­tices — plant­ing mul­tiple crops for a diver­si­fied income and a health­i­er eco­sys­tem — the com­pany provides dir­ect expert sup­port, sem­inars, and e‑learning to their farm­er community.

They claim this approach not only improves farm­ers’ live­li­hoods but also expands the reach of Viet­namese cocoa glob­ally to 32 coun­tries. Their product is one of the favour­ite gifts that tour­ists bring home from Vietnam.

Food waste management

Bey­ond the eco­nom­ic bene­fits of pre­vent­ing food waste, there are eth­ic­al, social, and eco­lo­gic­al considerations. 

Pizza 4P’s meas­ured kit­chen waste and developed a food waste pre­ven­tion pro­cess with­in their chain of 32 res­taur­ants in four countries. 

Through col­lab­or­a­tions with loc­al NGOs, Pizza 4P’s offers its freshest unsold food to under­priv­ileged com­munit­ies; less fresh food feeds anim­als. If it is unfit for con­sump­tion, the chain’s organ­ic waste is com­pos­ted to fer­til­ise their part­ner farms.

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” con­tent tagged ‘Food’

Stu­dents of EHT Paul Dubrule, a tour­ism school in Siem Reap, Cam­bod­ia, which serves 350 meals daily, noticed a large quant­ity of rice waste in the trash can. 

The stu­dent-led Eco com­mit­tee came up with the idea of serving much smal­ler cubic por­tions of rice with the assur­ance: “You can take as many rice cubes as you like, but do not leave them uneaten.”

After a year, rice waste had dropped to almost zero in the canteen.

Awareness and involvement of stakeholders

Intern­al aware­ness, involve­ment, and pro­cesses are cru­cial for sus­tain­ab­il­ity with­in hos­pit­al­ity organ­isa­tions. For example, EHT Paul Dubrule empowers young appren­tices to lead eco-ini­ti­at­ives inde­pend­ently, achiev­ing a Green Flag certification. 

Two more examples: Pizza 4P’s engages its kit­chen team in waste man­age­ment pro­ced­ures and Marou Faiseurs de Chocol­at incor­por­ates social and envir­on­ment­al stand­ards into their processes.

To pro­mote sus­tain­able mod­els, busi­nesses must recog­nise that sus­tain­ab­il­ity is not just a char­it­able act but an oppor­tun­ity to enhance busi­ness, increase profits, and sup­port loc­al communities. 

Des­pite con­cerns about resources for sus­tain­able star­tups and busi­nesses, com­munity sup­port, gov­ern­ment­al, and non-profit funds are avail­able for eco-friendly projects.

In con­clu­sion, what we learned at our ASSET‑H&C con­fer­ence, “Sus­tain­able Food Sys­tem in Hos­pit­al­ity: Where to start?”, is that the key to sus­tain­able food mod­els in South­east Asia lies in con­tinu­ous learn­ing and aware­ness-build­ing across all stages of the food jour­ney, from respons­ible pro­duc­tion to waste management. 

Edu­ca­tion, from classroom to work­place, is vital for cre­at­ing a cul­ture that takes con­cer­ted actions for a green­er future.

Also see Lauren Khar­ouni’s “GT” Insight ‘Save money, sat­is­fy guests, & join the fight against food waste’

Training the trainers in food waste prevention

Thanks to Light­Blue Con­sult­ing and The “Good Tour­ism” Blog, three tour­ism train­ers and staff from the ASSET‑H&C net­work have been gif­ted with an ‘Advanced Course on Food Waste Pre­ven­tion’ by LightBlue. 

“GT” won the Light­Blue-sponsored lucky wheel prize at PATA Travel Mart 2023 in New Del­hi, India. Light­Blue agreed to trans­fer the prize to ASSET‑H&C (and tripled its value). 

Their sup­port helps ASSET‑H&C mem­bers pre­pare aspir­ing tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity work­ers for a green­er, more sus­tain­able future. ASSET‑H&C mem­ber schools offer voca­tion­al train­ing and edu­ca­tion to people from dis­ad­vant­aged backgrounds.

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About the author

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo is a mem­ber of the co-ordin­a­tion team for the Asso­ci­ation of South­east Asi­an Social Enter­prises for Train­ing in Hos­pit­al­ity & Cater­ing (ASSET‑H&C). ASSET‑H&C is a region­al net­work of voca­tion­al train­ing centres that pro­mote the social and eco­nom­ic inclu­sion of vul­ner­able people in South­east Asia. ASSET‑H&C mem­bers work togeth­er on their com­mon mis­sion to make a pos­it­ive impact on the lives of dis­ad­vant­aged youths and adults.

Thu Thảo has also writ­ten for The “GT” Travel Blog.

Featured image (top of post)

Stu­dents of Spoons Cam­bod­ia dis­cuss where food comes from, and where it goes. Estab­lished in 2009, and formerly known as EGBOK, Spoons Cam­bod­ia “trains under­served young adults to be the future hos­pit­al­ity lead­ers of Cambodia”.

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