AI-based systems help hotel chain Iberostar to cut food waste

The hotel chain and global tourism company Iberostar is working with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce food waste and its management unveiled initiatives to reach carbon neutrality by 2030.

1. Food waste and carbon neutrality

Food waste is a serious issue, especially for hotel chains that spread out across the globe, such is the case of Iberostar, which counts over 100 properties in 16 countries. Unveiling his plans to reverse this unsustainable trend, Gabriel Martorell, Iberostar’s director of sustainability, shared the company’s plans to reduce food waste by 50% in its first year leveraging technology that he says will save more than $7 million annually, in time.

For example, in Iberostar Selection Bávaro, in the Dominican Republic, we found that we were wasting around 15% of our daily croissant production. Our chef updated the order as a result of this information, so we are baking fewer croissants, but of even higher quality.

Gabriel Martorell, Iberostar’s director of sustainability

By 2025, Iberostar aims to be free of waste sent to the landfill. With that in mind, the Spanish hotel chain established the hospitality sector’s first department dedicated to removing waste — 3R department — whose name comes from the circular economy principles ‘Reduce – Reuse – Recycle.’ “This department is responsible for segregating, weighing, and analyzing waste,” said Martorell.

2. Tracking food with AI tech

The industry’s approach to tackle food waste is focused on the concept of generating less food. “Whether through reducing our plate sizes or updating technology to stay on track,” said Martorell, referring to the Winnow technology. Winnow is an AI-system which has been implemented in Iberostar kitchens and it knows exactly what is thrown away, what is saved, helping the management to make smarter decisions based on real data that ultimately promotes improvements in the production processes.

“We started with Winnow in just a few kitchens, and now we are expanding to all our hotels,” said Martorell. In the first year of the trial with Winnow’s technology, in Iberostar Selection Bávaro, in the Dominican Republic, the hotel chain reduced food waste by 35%. As a result, Martorell said, the company will save about 300,000 meals and $290,000.

3. Sustainable initiatives

In addition to tackling food waste, Iberostar’s sustainability chief said the hotel chain has been integrating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of their business strategies.

Today at #Cop27 our Global Director of Sustainability, @mkmorikawa, discussed “Food Loss & Waste in Food Systems” and shared insights about how at Iberostar we reduce #foodwaste as a key part of our goal to become #wastefree by 2025 and #carbonneutral by 2030. pic.twitter.com/GDNPXzbXgZ

— Iberostar Hotels & Resorts (@IBEROSTAR) November 16, 2022

“We developed our Agenda 2030, with a goal to be carbon neutral by 2030. Through our Agenda 2030 we work to accomplish our three key pillars: embracing a circular economy, promoting the responsible consumption of seafood, and improving coastal health,” said Martorell.

Back in 2019, Iberostar removed all single-use plastics in rooms, reducing over 420 tons of plastic annually, a move that will help the hotel chain in working towards sending zero waste to landfills by 2025.  This, in turn, will help Iberostar to reduce 50% of emissions from waste disposal.

Iberostar has set yearly targets in order to achieve this goal [50% emissions reduction]. For example, we are implementing a Circular Procurement Strategy in our hotels to work to combat waste. Winnow will play an important role in our goal.

Gabriel Martorell, Iberostar’s director of sustainability

The giant hotel chain has calculated that, in Latin America alone, Iberostar will save around 3,000,000 meals, 1,118 tons of food, and 5,110 tons of CO2 emissions per year. In total, with the implementation of this system to combat food waste, Martorell said, Iberostar will stop throwing away almost 5 million meals a year, more than 1,600 tons of food, and will stop emitting almost 8,000 tons of CO2 a year.