2024 Gold Sustainability

Agency: The Ideas House

Client: Marriott International

Entry Title: Love Food, Hate Waste

Executive Summary

Marriott’s focus has been to reduce food waste across the portfolio and ensure UK hotels continue to evolve using the latest technology available, engaging teams and educating guests on the importance of sustainability in the catering sector.

Strategy

In the hospitality and service sector, around 920,000 tonnes of food is wasted each year. Marriott wanted to reduce this, using seven key pillars on food waste to create a food waste-conscious environment:

• Setting targets to minimise food waste
• Engage all hotel teams and establish a Food Lover’s Committee
• Installing Winnow - a food waste monitoring system that tracks, records and compares food waste Implementing, reviewing and improving processes and policies to minimise food waste
• Improving and implementing best practices to reduce food waste in kitchens
• Inspire customers by regularly communicating about sustainable food waste practice
• Adopting new solutions such as redistributing and/or transforming food leftovers

Creativity

The creative approach was simple: produce an impactful campaign to educate and inspire customers to support the ambition to reduce food waste. Love Food, Hate Waste was devised. It was brought to life across a number of engaging assets with provoking imagery that amplified the message, including online and on-property.

The online campaign focussed on building awareness with customers, so they knew what to expect before arriving at a hotel. The on-property storytelling was evident as soon as the customer walked into a hotel. Digital screens displayed creative visuals within high footfall areas such as the lobby, at check-in, within the restaurant and meeting spaces.

Breakfast buffets were an integral part of the campaign, where most of our food waste derives from. Strategically placed signs encouraged customers to reduce the amount of waste on their plates with ‘Take less, eat more’ and ‘Start small, come back for more’ messaging.

Results

The group invested in food waste technology from Winnow: an analytics platform to measure a kitchen’s environmental impact. The data was crucial in helping measure and track results.

All seven key pillars were successfully met by June 2024 by all 52 hotels participating following an external audit. The ratings ranged from 88%-97%. The average rating was 99.4%. Results from Winnow analysis showed a 35% reduction in food waste from January to June 2024. This exceeded the initial goal of 25% reduction in food waste. Hotels also saved 284,000 meals within the same timeframe.

The team wanted to restrict printed materials and create excess waste in the process. It used Revive 100% Silk, which is manufactured from 100% post-consumer waste pulp. Additionally, all printer ink used was vegetable based. The labels supplied on takeaway boxes were made from ECO, a fully biodegradable alternative to traditional integrated label stationery.

The Team

Marriott International - Amber Lawson, Senior Marketing Manager - Sheena Williams, Cluster General Manager - Lidia Kramer, Project Manager - Fernanda Lopez, Director of Operations - Kate Chesshyre, Senior Director PR & Comms - Joanna Chugh, Area Vice President, UK Ireland and Nordics - Kieran Madden, F&B Training Manager

The Ideas House - Rose French, Director - Cathryn Kronhamn, Director and Founder