PATA launches the BUFFET Campaign to raise awareness on food waste in the tourism industry

PATA launches the BUFFET Campaign to raise awareness on food waste in the tourism industry

 

BANGKOK, 2018-Jan-15 — /Travel PR News/ — Building on the success of the UN’s International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (IY2017) initiative and in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), PATA, along with our project partner, Scholars of Sustenance (Thai-SOS) and knowledge partner Futouris, is launching the BUFFET Campaign to raise awareness of food waste in our industry to drive positive change.

The BUFFET (Building an Understanding For Food Excess in Tourism) Initiative is about bringing together a coalition of industry partners and PATA members to create and implement a campaign that challenges our industry, particularly the hospitality sector, to reduce food waste to landfill.

PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy said, “With significant growth expected in the industry and especially the Asia Pacific region in the near future, greater waste can be expected. Our aim is to curb that waste by bringing the tourism and hospitality sectors together to reduce our impact on the planet by reducing our industry’s food waste to landfill. Reducing food waste will reduce the cost for operators in the industry while benefiting the environment at the same time.”

The main activities in this initiative include the raising awareness of food waste in our industry and the creation of Asia-Pacific focused resources for hoteliers and other hospitality and tourism professionals to drive positive change and ultimately reduce their food waste to landfill. While this initiative aims to impact our industry at large, will be focusing additional efforts on hotels and food and beverage providers in Asia, and specific hotel properties in Bangkok in our Bangkok Hotels Project, with the expertise of Thai-SOS.

PATA is seeking to engage further with hotels who would like to reduce their food waste to landfill, hotels already implementing food waste solutions, potential partners and sponsors, as well as those who would like to help us in raising awareness and building a better understanding for food excess in tourism.

With increasing concern of the world for climate change, food waste has come increasingly under attention in recent years and for good reason:

• Food waste is the third biggest contributor to climate change
• One-third of all foods produced in the world is wasted
• Additional pressures arise from GHG emissions caused by food production and transportation
• Right now 842 million people do not have enough to eat and with an estimated world population of 9.8 billion people in 2050 resources will be limited and more people will be hungry

Together, we can make a difference.
For more information visit: https://www.pata.org/food-waste/

About PATA

Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit membership association that acts a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its member organisations, comprising 95 government, state and city tourism bodies, 25 international airlines and airports, 108 hospitality organisations, 72 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 36 local PATA chapters worldwide. The chapters organise travel industry training and business development events. Their grassroots activism underpins PATA’s membership in Uniting Travel, a coalition of the world’s major Travel & Tourism organisations dedicated to ensuring that the sector speaks with one voice and acts in unison on the major issues and includes ACI, CLIA, IATA, ICAO, WEF, UNWTO and the WTTC. The PATAmPOWER platform delivers unrivalled data, forecasts and insights from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre to members’ desktops and mobile devices anywhere in the world. PATA’s Head Office has been in Bangkok since 1998. The Association also has official offices or representation in Beijing, Sydney and London. Visit www.PATA.org.

About Thai-SOS
Scholars of Sustenance (SOS), established in America in 2014, and is the parent foundation of Thai-SOS, locally registered in Thailand. SOS operates in Indonesia as well, with plans to expand to Cambodia and Myanmar in 2018.Thai-SOS has a simple mission; to increase food security while reducing food waste.They began working in Bangkok in March of 2016 and put their first food rescue truck on the road in October of 2016. In the past year, they have been successful in getting a full-scale operation up & running, diverting over 1.5 tons of food away from landfills daily, weekly improving the quality of life for over 3,000 individuals, and proving their simple model: food is picked up from commercial outlets, like hotels and grocery stores, and delivered directly to communities and agencies in need.

Along with that, they offer trainings, data sharing, education in communities, and events all aimed at increasing awareness around food waste and giving practical solutions for solving some of these issues from households to corporations.

Source: PATA

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