Restaurants, pubs and hotels not as green as they think

An independent report of over 300 restaurants, hotels and pubs has found that although 92 percent of businesses claim to be taking active steps to be green, most are not doing enough.

The Green Paper, carried out by refrigeration company Gram​, found that most businesses in the hospitality industry had green aspirations, and while some establishments had implemented some rather interesting initiatives, such as cutting down on the number of hours food is served, most admitted that recycling packaging was the only action they had taken.

Although two-thirds of businesses surveyed found recycling packaging the easiest action to implement, recycling food waste and buying low-energy equipment was deemed the hardest.

A Gram spokesperson claimed that most of the industry ‘may see recycling as all they need to do to be ‘green’.’

“The strong desire to be a greener industry needs to be converted into action by promoting a wider range of green initiatives as an industry there is a lot to be done and the benchmark needs to be raised.”

Gram found that the main barrier when it came to implementing green initiatives was the negative attitude of individual staff. Franchised outlets claimed that their company policies, laid out by head office, hindered their ability to be green.

A spokesperson for the British Hospitality Association, said: "Most hospitality businesses recognise the importance of being environmentally aware and are taking steps - not every step and not all at the same time - but the message is getting through. They recognise the advantage of saving energy, the need to source local produce and the need to cut waste - but it`s a huge industry and it will take time to get through to them all."

Despite 75 percent of businesses being unaware of Government tax breaks as a green incentive, almost half felt they could afford (in monetary terms) to be as green as they liked.

The main message in Gram`s report was that green attitudes are varied across the industry:

Pubs​ are the most cynical, feeling that they are already green and are not as motivated to improve

Hotels​ are least motivated by the environmental effect, and are more concerned with saving money and feeling good about being green

Restaurants​ are the most willing to pay to become greener.