What we don’t know
Research around low carbon menus
Low carbon menus are still in their infancy and data gaps around how changes to menus affects carbon emissions remain. Some big questions for us include:
How substantial are the business opportunities for shifting to plant-based default menus?
How does a shift to a plant-based default menu affect revenue and profitability across different sizes of UK hospitality businesses?
How does a shift to plant-based default menus in hospitality affect at home food choices?
What challenges do SMEs face?
Due to their larger resources, bigger hospitality business are leading the way in measuring their carbon footprint and making changes to menu layout and dish redesign.
SMEs make up 99% of the UK hospitally industry by number and 50% by turnover, so we’re keen to see what challenges are holding back progress, both in terms of reducing carbon emissions and making the most of business opportunities, in respect to shifting to plant-based menus.
We suspect issues centre around:
marketing knowhow / percieved customer preferences
sourcing plant-based ingredients / supplier engagement
recipe design / chef training
margins and profitability
food waste / operational feasibility