35% less food waste at the R2 Hotel Rio Calma on Fuerteventura

The aim of the schauinsland-reisen project is to raise awareness among hotel employees about sustainable nutrition and to reduce food waste in the Spanish hotels of the R2 Group.

In order to increase hotel employees' awareness and knowledge of sustainable food, the first step in spring was to train almost 30 employees of the R2 hotel chain on the subject at a meeting in Fuerteventura and another in Mallorca. During the training sessions, employees from the management and F&B departments of a total of five hotels, including the well-known and popular Rio Calma and Pájara Beach resorts, learned how to make purchasing processes more sustainable, increase the proportion of local and sustainable products in the food offering, and communicate information on sustainability aspects to guests.

The second part of the project focused on avoiding and reducing food waste. At the pilot hotel R2 Rio Calma on Fuerteventura, food waste in the areas of production residues, plate returns, overproduction and storage was measured and evaluated over a period of four weeks using the waste analysis tool from United Against Waste e.V. Based on the results obtained, individual measures were developed together with the hotel staff to reduce waste. For example, kitchen staff were given intensive training to reduce the amount of waste when preparing food. In order to reduce waste from overproduction, daily occupancy rate information was sent to the kitchen so that meals could be prepared according to the expected number of guests. Smaller plates, bowls and smaller, pre-portioned servings at the buffet also helped to reduce food waste.

The second measurement in September showed that these and other measures were successful in reducing food waste by a total of 35%.

Sarah Bousart, sustainability officer at schauinsland-reisen and project manager for the tour operator, is delighted with the results: "The success of the project shows that targeted training on the subject and consistent implementation of appropriate measures can achieve a great deal. The next step will be to roll out the successfully tested measures to the six other hotels in the R2 Group in order to reduce waste there too and thus contribute to the fight against food waste."

The R2 Hotels also draw a thoroughly positive conclusion: "The project and the training helped us to improve our working methods and gave us an insight into the topic of sustainability in our restaurants. We will now take the same approach in our other hotels in order to achieve a way of working that is characterised by sustainability and mindfulness, to protect our planet and at the same time achieve savings in our establishments."