By André LaRivière
Check the numbers that boost the resilience of your restaurant or foodservice business
Occasionally, an idea or development comes along in our industry that suggests we should revisit the standard formulas we use to measure how we’re doing. In the case of sustainability, the green lexicon is changing – and for good reason.
Sustainability is still a major business buzzword, of course, and its importance to our future certainly hasn’t waned. However, in some sectors the term has become too closely associated with a nice ‘extra’ thing to do, like charity or social work, as opposed to being – as it should – a core measure of business performance and success. Some corporate leaders are looking to replace it with something that will receive, well, sustained attention from their team.
The other factor that has reframed the language of sustainability is extreme weather. Recent global events such as droughts and super-sized hurricanes related to climate change have cost the world’s governments and businesses billions. As a result, the elite number crunchers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this year reported that they’ve now classified water and food shortages as two of the top five risks to business on the planet.
Building resilience is key
And while these aren’t immediate backyard issues for Canadian foodservice operators, most would agree that a good way to mitigate the potential effects of these high-level global risks is to build some resilience into your business model. It goes well beyond being a nice thing to do, to being a smart and strategic way to weather both the economic and climactic changes ahead.
Where to start? It helps to know which sustainable business strategies and policies support resilient operations, especially when measured by numbers that are too often overlooked or ignored.
Take, for example, a press release for a new US-based software platform for corporate chefs and menu developers promising access to menu data that restaurateurs can use to plan business decisions. This subscription service aims to help chefs create unique flavour combinations and see how dishes change when they are used.
Variables to consider
An interesting idea, but is it genius from an environmental perspective? This company is assuming a level playing field built on the current abundance of food. But this version of a “smart” menu planner will only be feasible if ingredients and products from every category will continue to be just as plentiful and cost relatively the same anywhere. It’s not wrong, exactly, just short sighted and the opposite of resilience.
A more accurate menu planning program would also factor in the true cost of ingredient choices. There are those at risk from supply challenges or environmental degradation to those with higher transport and storage costs. It would be best to suggest local or, yes, sustainable alternatives. On another graph, a good planning tool would also compare the energy intensity of select menu items, including the related costs to equip, power and staff the kitchen facilities and systems needed for various preparation options.
Better options available
For example, if you are planning a new menu item such as “grilled tiger prawns with fire-roasted peppers in a white wine and seafood stock reduction served with sweet potato shoestrings,” an environmentally smarter menu planner would advise you that the dish features a protein produced in environmentally compromised areas. It would explain that your dish is produced using ingredients from an area at risk from coastal flooding, and its prep method consumes over 100,000 BTU of energy for the charbroiler, range and fryer per serving. It would likely recommend a low-risk sustainable seafood or vegetarian option and a smarter prep method that burns less energy per plate while delivering comparable flavour profiles.
Of course, this isn’t revolutionary at all; it’s simply what the best analog menu planners – talented, experienced chefs – do when they have the time, resources and opportunity to make informed choices.
And this very spreadsheet-savvy industry, with know-how to calculate complex operating costs despite the often crazy variables, is certainly capable of looking beyond their neighbour’s (or competitor’s) menus for guidance.
Perhaps, someday soon, there will be an online resource that helps chefs and other menu planners to invest in a resilient food system, and not exploit the old unsustainable model. Until then, do what the world’s smartest businesses are doing – look at the numbers behind the numbers.
About the author
André LaRivière is a sustainability facilitator and consultant for Vancouver-based Smarter Restaurants. For more future-friendly ideas, contact [email protected].
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