Implement And Monitor Environmentally Sustainable Work Practice

Restaurant Business and Generated Waste

Discuss about the Implement and Monitor Environmentally Sustainable Work Practice.

In the contemporary business environment, organizations are recognizing adversities of climate change and its significance. The idea of environment protection rose in the beginning of the twenty first century. Nearly all business organizations can either have a positive or a negative impact on environment to a large extent. In the present-day business organizations are more aware about transformation organizations into “Going Green” or Environmental Friendly which also assists in attaining competitive advantage.  It not only protects and sustain environment but also facilitates in develop and progress in organization’s bottom line. For a business organization, adopting an eco friendly office infrastructure and culture allows its employees and other stakeholders to take part in the green movement. The primary challenge is to develop the right approach to involve and encourage the people involved with the organization, the process includes training, perusing, communication, allowing, sustain and promote participation in the “Going Green Process”. The author work as a Manager in the Stellini Bar, which is one of the most popular restaurant and bar in Melbourne, mainly serves Italian and European cuisine. As a Manager the basic job is to keep customers happy by ensuring that the bar runs without interference. The competition in the local restaurant business is quite high with each restaurants coming up with new innovative ideas to attract their customers. In this report the author is going to discuss about the environmental impact that is occurring in the Stellini Bar and recommending different measures that could be adopted to reduce the identified environmental impact.

The author work as the manager at Stellini Bar, so from experience the author has observed that restaurants produces a large amount of solid wastes that includes plastics, food wastes, broken glass, metal scraps, paper cups and boards. Also sometimes hazardous wastes also. So, there is a need for both restaurant owners and managers to improve ways to reduce waste disposals and reduce costs overhead expenses as well as meeting customer expectations. According to a new study, Australians throw away $8 billion of edible food which is 4million tones of food annually. The increasing size of the restaurant business in Australian economy raises the question about the suitability of the present green management system to deal the fast shifting set of ecological concerns. Although several initiates are taken by restaurant owners to reduce the food waste in the restaurant business like allowing customers to take away leftover food, donation to food bank or charity organizations, etc. Some organizations are even going one step further by converting the leftover food into composites which are then used in organic gardens. Now restaurant owners are also facilitated with software which pre calculate the supply required in the operations, and by this way restaurants are effectively managing supplies and cutting food wastes.  The Stellini Bar produces a lot of wastes from packaging to left over foods and also in kitchen supplies. This is a serious problem as leftover food wastes costs business operations.  

Going Green

For better analysis of the environmental impact of Stellini Bar, the author has identified the direct impact that includes the energy consumptions, solid wastes, water consumptions, air emissions etc. The Stellini Bar has a electricity consumption line both in commercial kitchen as well as the restaurant area. The restaurant has also water consumption lines that are used in kitchen and toilet areas as well as for other cleaning purposes. The Stellini Bar has a good amount of customers who order takeout food parcels, so in the process the restaurant serves them in plastic containers. Like other restaurants, the Stelline Bar also produces a large amount food wastes that consumers simply decide not to eat. In Stellini Bar people often left foods which they could not finish in their platter, this increases the food wastes. Customers often hesitate to ask for the leftover food as parcel. In a recent study it has been found out that more than 10% of the restaurant prepared food goes into trash after purchased by customers. In the global water crisis scenario restaurants tend to waste tons of water every year. Restaurants are equally responsible for creating air pollution as automobiles and industries. The smoke and fumes exhausted from the chimney often produces harmful gasses. In Stellini Bar, the kitchen uses grills and char broilers for preparing food, but on flipside it produces a lot of harmful gases like carbon mono oxide. According to some experts, restaurant kitchen produces more gasses than a truck. Also, restaurant kitchen also produces grease which in long run not only traps work but are highly inflammable which can start fire when overheated.

The increasing human demand has increased the carbon foot prints of human beings that are disrupting the chemical cycle which were undisturbed for centuries. With the growing competition in the restaurant business, many organizations have adopted the innovative “go green” concept to build more environment friendly restaurants for attracting customers. The concept of green restaurant can be explained into broader terms of sustainability, renewability and eco friendly. The basic idea is to promote not only recycling of papers, glass, metals, etc but also recycle of pre consumed wastes. The eco friendly Green restaurant concept will encourage the Stellini Bar to be less wasteful and more resourceful. The Stellini Bar is having a great ambience where customers enjoy great food at social environment. In the contemporary service sector, the need for sustainability has increased and thus increased the environment friendly awareness. Sustainability simply means balance between the environmental, cultural and economical aspects of the business. Sustainability increases the profit and customer loyalty of the business. The basic aim of sustainable business environment for Stellini Bar is to reduce the dependency on the use of petroleum in automobiles used for transportation of regular supply for the restaurant. The aim is also to reduce the use of heavy metals for decorating the interior of the restaurant space and the kitchen area. Bio-degradable products would be replaced with the use of heavy metals. The use of synthetic chemicals that keep on in ecology creates one of the most dangerous hazards in long run, so plastic products like paper cups, plates and bags should be banned for use in Stellini Bar. Plastics are one of the most harmful elements that is extensively used in Setllini Bar on everyday basis. It is because that it is non-degradable in nature and thus stays in the eco system for ever creating pollution on large scale. The restaurant kitchen is another place which produces a lot of harmful gasses and greases which needs check. The management should install modern kitchen systems which release less harmful gasses and greases. Lastly the step to reduce the total amount of food waste that Stellini Bar produces could be checked by conducting a waste audit. It will allow the management to experience physically what food wastes the restaurant is been producing. Once the audit will be conducted the results will be evaluated by current practices and measures to reduce the quantity of food waste. The management can also plan to renovate the restaurant to build green building to introduce innovative systems within the restaurant compound to impact the overall sustainability of the Stellini Bar. While planning for green buildings, the few basic things that should be kept in mind are sustainable planning, structuring, operations and maintenance practices. According to experts, alternative energy conservation strategies are always effective. The management should also focus on the training as it is a very important aspect of a successful green restaurant and waste reduction process. Waste reduction has been effective low cost or no cost approaches to ease disposal cost, and environment friendly commercial kitchen. In general most waste reduction practices are ethical business practices with the "green" alias acts as a bonus for the brand image of the business. According to industry experts it is the most obvious thing to do because it not only cuts cost and also appeals to the customers. Although implementing in practical life takes time and effort as the initial equipments can be expensive, the employees need training to apply guidelines and new duties are time consuming. Once the management overcomes the initial hurdles, the change is sustainable in long run. The actions for becoming green restaurant will demonstrate the concern of environmental sustainability of Stellini Bar which will also attract support from both government and NGOs, local communities. For Stellini Bar, becoming a sustainable business is a long going process and there is no finish line. It needs constant improvements and up gradation to encourage environmental sustainability. It has also been found that employees are often strongly motivated by the actions of sustainable environment friendly actions, which ultimately increases employee productivity and reduces turn over. The basic job of the management is to initiate an alternative eco friendly and bio-degradable restaurant business which will have minimum impact on environment and can sustain in long run.

According to the recent trends, going green and building green buildings in business has become one of the hottest topics. Every other business organizations are giving importance in environmental sustainability. A secure, suitable and healthy business is the qualification for every successful restaurant business for customers as well as its employees. Going Green in restaurant business is not only following current trend but also building lasting sustainability. The immediate step for implementing environment friendly restaurant is through deciding the process of moving forward. It is evident that the management of Stellini Bar has to move forward with proper structure to facilitate requirements and abilities. Firstly, the existing Stellini Bar has a building which needs to be renovated to construct a new eco friendly green building. The restaurant area can be open during the renovation process, the only thing that the management should keep in mind that the materials which will be used in the process should be disposed off without creating much pollution. Also, during the renovation process efforts should be made to reduce the environmental impact. The steps that can be initiated in this process like minimizing light pollution, providing mass transportation of required supplies, using existing building footprints, reusing building materials from existing site, etc. (Baraban and Durocher, 2010)Energy efficient buildings have often designs which use the natural light to optimum for reducing usage of electricity. Walls should be replaced with large glass windows wherever possible. Especially in the dining area, implementing proper window panel will reduce the cooling system. Also, solar panels should be installed on roofs for use of renewable solar energy in dining and kitchen areas. For that the management has to hire solar panel expert to implement the process. This process requires some amount of investment in the initial process but proves to be very cost effective in long run as this will help in complete stop of usage of electricity. Once the renovation of the building is done, the management has to focus on energy consumption on inside kitchen operations. The average kitchen area of commercial restaurants consumes 10times more energy than any house hold kitchen. The lighting systems should be replaced with latest generation of CFLs and LED bulbs as they produces less heat and are also energy efficient. Energy is also consumed during the process of food preparation, like cooking, washing, cleaning, etc. the management should plan accordingly for efficient use of energy in kitchen to decrease the operation cost and maintaining environmental sustainability. The kitchen area should have onsite water purification system so that the water used in cleaning purposes can be used after purification. This will cut the water consumption amount of Stellini Bar. Also appliances for rain water harvest should be also implemented so that the rain water can also be used.  The management should buy most energy efficient appliances, old and a low quality appliance tends to be poor at energy efficiency. Making changes in kitchen operations can bring significant improvement in the process of sustainability. The management should approve kitchen appliances which are Energy Star approved, in that way all kitchen appliances will be energy efficient. The used cooking oil can be collected and reused as fuel for heating greenhouses during winters and also for minor fuel usage. This will enable the reuse of cooking oil without disposing it in garbage. As author has already discussed that Stellini Bar has a customer base who orders online for food delivery and the food is delivered in plastic containers. The management can take initiatives to replace the plastic containers with biodegradable products like coconut, bamboo and corn based containers and initiating the substitution of paper by bagasse- a non paper alternative which is equally biodegradable and compostable (Freeman, 2011). The basic idea is to substitute the conventional restaurant eating experience with unique bio-degradable products which will have minimalist impact on environment. This will encourage the customers to take initiatives for environmental sustainability. The washrooms and toilets in the restaurant should be replaced with water efficient appliances. Lastly, the author has a unique suggestion for the management of the Stellini Bar for creating an environment friendly image as well as creating a brand value for the restaurant is by building an onsite organic garden. This will enable fresh supply of kitchen requirements and will also create uniqueness for the Stellini Bar.

Conclusion:

Implementing the above recommended steps requires a considerable amount of investment which can be a hurdle for the author to convince the management. Also, training the staff for implementation of the up gradation is required because this technologically improved appliance requires trained staffs to handle. The newly implemented rules and processes would need encouragement and practice from the management to be practiced. If the above recommended strategies are implemented successfully then Stellini Bar would become one of the greenest and environment friendly sustainable restaurants in Melbourne.

Reference:

Baraban, R.S. and Durocher, J.F., 2010. Successful restaurant design. John Wiley & Sons.

Freeman, E.M., 2011. Restaurant industry sustainability: barriers and solutions to sustainable practice indicators (Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University).