London Heathrow Airport has today (March 11) released Ingredients for Success, the UK’s first airport sustainable restaurant guide.
Drafted in partnership with the not-for-profit Sustainable Restaurant Association, and with the collaboration of leading food and beverage retailers at the airport, Ingredients for Success builds on the common ground between retailers’ own sustainability goals and that of Responsible Heathrow 2020, the airport’s own sustainability plan.
The guide sets out sustainability targets for all food and beverage retailers at the airport, focusing on six key core areas, including reducing energy use by 10% for every person served; implementing a systematic approach to saving water; contributing to the airport’s efforts to recycle 70% of all food waste, using resources such as the cooking oil recycling program; encouraging sustainable behavior by employees, including reducing car use and taking up Heathrow’s car sharing scheme; giving back to the local communities around the airport, including participating in the airport’s charity, the Heathrow Community Fund, and striving to hire local people with tools like the Heathrow Jobs and Careers Fair; and ensuring sustainability is at the heart of the passenger experience, and enforcing this through the mystery shopper auditing program.
Jonathan Coen, retail director at London Heathrow, said, “Heathrow Airport is a small city, hosting over 400 companies, 76,000 employees, and serving 190,000 passengers every day. An operation the size and scale of Heathrow relies on collaboration with our partners to ensure our sustainability ambitions are realized. As the UK’s first guide of its kind, Ingredients for Success is a call to action for the food and beverage retailers who wish to join our airport on its journey to become the world’s most sustainable hub airport.”
Simon Heppner, founding director of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, said, “The public’s appetite for a sustainable dining experience is increasing significantly – wherever they are eating out. So for Heathrow to put sustainability at the heart of the passenger experience is a very welcome and positive move. We look forward to seeing the airport’s food retailers embrace these targets and use them as a base from which to aim even higher.”