The meetings and events industry has been increasingly focused on sustainability this year, but audience participation is also needed to make an even greater impact. One example of how this is being trialed by travel tech company Amadeus, which recently launched carbon menu labeling at two NEC Group venues in the UK, The National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and the International Convention Centre Birmingham (ICC).
Amadeus worked with food tech company Foodsteps for the trial program, which is assessing the carbon impact of 1,800 menu items sold at the venues. Foods with a low carbon impact now include the low carbon label, and the menu screens also include an explanation of the new label.
The cloud-based Foodsteps platform enables food providers to upload recipes to view their carbon impact, as well as monitor targets, develop new recipes, and improve a menu’s sustainability.
The initiative is part of a collaboration with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), which also funded the project, and the University of Birmingham (UOB), who are conducting a study on food sustainability labeling and behavior change.
It will be interesting to see whether these labels make a difference in what attendees choose to eat, and assuming it does, we can almost certainly expect this initiative to be expanded to other venues around the world, as noted by Marc Frankl, Food and Beverage Director for Amadeus.
“We’ve been looking at carbon labelling for a while, but it is something we were able to implement quicker thanks to the input of WMCA,” he said in a statement. “We want to empower our visitors to make more sustainable choices and educate themselves about the carbon impact of food […] and we’re really interested to see how this labelling will affect customer’s behaviours. We’re constantly looking at ways to review and improve our sustainability methods and it’s something we’d love to roll out across our wider venue portfolio.”