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The ‘not very sexy’ – but critical – role of the supply chain

Rooftop gardens, onsite composting and even marine-friendly straws are all easier sells than supply chain sustainability. But according to experts, supply chain sustainability can be even more important.

“‘We changed the behavior of this supplier to become more sustainable’ is not very sexy,” says Tom Eggert, senior lecturer on business sustainability at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and executive director of the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council. “But when you change the behavior of your suppliers, you’re reshaping an entire industry. The request you make also changes their behavior for other people who aren’t asking them to operate in a more sustainable way.”

Gary Wallach, director of food and beverage at Arlo Hotels in New York City, says it starts with talking. “Everything’s done by computer, and sometimes people don’t even know who their (supplier) representative is,” he says. “You have to have conversations. It’s not the food and beverage business. It’s the relationship business.”

The daily catch at The Commoner, at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh: “There have been significant advances in being able to track your carbon footprint from a corporate perspective,” says Scott Gingerich, senior vice president for restaurants and bars. “We ask our suppliers about their carbon footprint, and for our liquor vendors, we ask about how they bottle and move liquid around.”
The daily catch at The Commoner, at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Pittsburgh: “There have been significant advances in being able to track your carbon footprint from a corporate perspective,” says Scott Gingerich, senior vice president for restaurants and bars. “We ask our suppliers about their carbon footprint, and for our liquor vendors, we ask about how they bottle and move liquid around.”

Wallach says he asks a lot of questions to determine if a supplier is sustainable or not.  “You run into people who don’t give you a straight answer, plenty,” he says. “They don’t have an answer so they’ll give me everything they have that beats around that bush instead of a straight answer.”

Just making the requests and asking questions can drive suppliers to be more sustainable, Eggert says. “When you’ve got a lot of customers asking the same sorts of questions, it raises up the issue on their radar screen.” 

But sometimes chefs and managers need to confirm that suppliers are living up to their word. Rohan Ogale, director of F&B at the Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, says his former chef, Stephane Calvet, would ride his motorbike all over Thailand to visit farmers and suppliers.

“You have to be extra careful,” Ogale says. “For example, when my chef was casually checking out one of the farms that claimed to be organic, he saw bags of fertilizer lying around. You have to go in and check.”

It was Calvet’s enthusiasm for meeting with suppliers that led him to find small, sustainably sourced farms and producers for items such as river prawns, teas and coffee. Calvet’s practice is being carried on by the hotel’s new executive chef, Liam Nealon. “You have to have that dialogue to distinguish being really being certified or just claiming you’re certified,” Ogale says.

Links in the chain

At the Corinthia Hotel Budapest, the hotel’s chef, Balázs Ölvedy, launched a farm-to-table initiative. “We are not only talking about top-quality ingredients, but also modern environment management and sustainable development,” says Imre Turak, F&B director. “Our food and beverage team and chefs know the farms and producers personally and trust them to provide the hotel with high-quality goods.”

The chef, Turak says, reformatted the hotel restaurant’s entire menu, and the beverage team looked for new suppliers. “Each course is adjusted to the ingredient, not the other way round,” Turak says. “It has taken thousands of miles to get to every corner of the country and find those free-range farms and small-producing suppliers that matched our new concept.”

Sometimes, hotels need to work directly with both suppliers and an environmental organization. That’s what Walt Disney World resorts and theme parks did. Their food and beverage team sent a representative from their Florida-based coffee purveyor, Joffrey’s, to Peru, about a decade ago to meet with farmers in the rain forest and to work with Conservation International.  

(Contributed by Jeanette Hurt)

“He worked with them and encouraged the farmers to make some changes, and then he returned the next year,” says Brian Koziol, F&B concept development director for Walt Disney World. “Today, that (fair trade and sustainably grown) coffee is served in all of the press pots in our hotel rooms.” 

Sustainability with suppliers generally works in two ways, one to reduce waste, and one to reduce carbon footprints, Eggert says. “I think waste is the easier of the two, but I would argue that carbon footprint is the more important of the two,” he says. “Companies are trying to figure out right now what kind of information they need to get from their suppliers regarding carbon impact.” 

Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai has direct relationships with suppliers to ensure their claims of sustainability (pictured is the resort's Italian chef, Marco Avesani).
Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai has direct relationships with suppliers to ensure their claims of sustainability (pictured is the resort’s Italian chef, Marco Avesani).

Leveraging influence

At Kimpton Hotels, the carbon footprint of the hotel chain’s suppliers is important, says Scott Gingerich, senior vice president for restaurants and bars. “There have been significant advances in being able to track your carbon footprint from a corporate perspective,” he says. “We ask our suppliers about their carbon footprint, and for our liquor vendors, we ask about how they bottle and move liquid around. Different countries have varying standards and certifications, but we think about the message we’re passing on to the guest and do our own research.”

Hotels should be collaborating with each other and with restaurants to negotiate for more sustainable practices, Eggert says. 

“Once you start leveraging with suppliers, you’re going to be making a lot more progress,” he says. “The companies that are the most progressive in working with their supply chain identify their suppliers in tiers. They start with their 10 largest suppliers, work through the issues, and then they take it to the next 10 or 25 suppliers.”

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