[ad_1]
A movement is being made to divert the waste of food from the landfill that quickly fills the summit county, headed by the foundation of the Park City community and supported by local leaders in sustainable tourism.
The effort began last year with a residential food waste diversion program, encouraging households to participate covering the start costs. Now the approach has changed to the commercial sector (restaurants, suppliers, airbnbs and night rental) where the impact potential is even greater.
This month, the Foundation announced the Cohorts program of zero food waste restaurants designed to take restaurants to the party.
In the heart of the initiative is the climate background, which Park City Community Foundation relaunched as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Andy Heht, the Foundation’s climate fund administrator, explained that the renewed approach to the fund was intentionally reduced to focus a tangible local problem.
“After talking with experts, his answer was the waste of food,” said Hecht. “Look what the waste of food does in the landfill. Look at the money that costs to fill the landfill. And then one thing that was not widely known was all the methane that creates when it reaches the landfill.”
Hicht said that with restaurants the diversion process looks different from a personal kitchen. The different preparation stations and the highest volume can raise unique challenges. That is part of the reason why the Community Foundation is helping to cover the start costs of the cohort and work together to solve the problems.
Up to 20 companies will be selected to participate in the practical program that provides support through individualized consulting, a workshop day on June 3 and funds for infrastructure and service costs.
“This is also for us to learn,” said Megan Fleming, director of Marketing and Communications at Park City Community Foundation. “Before really climbing a bigger program, what are the challenges that people are having in their business?”
The program is designed to be flexible and adaptable, taking into account that each business is unique. Main Street restaurants can face different logistics limitations, such as space limitations for compost containers, which others in Kimball Junction or other parts of Summit County, said Fleming. There are also wildlife considerations, he said, that they have heard from similar cities such as Aspen, Colorado, can cause challenges. Bears prevail in the center of Aspen, for example.
The Foundation is being associated with REFED, a national leader in food waste solutions, to provide consulting and strategy assistance to participating companies. The objective is to help them develop plans to reduce and deviation of personalized waste that are effective and sustainable.
Morgan Mingle, director of Sustainable Tourism at the Park City Chamber/Office, sees the initiative as a critical part of the broader sustainable tourism plan of 10 years in the region.
“It looks very holistically in all systems in Park City to make sure we are properly raising environmental and social needs when it comes to supporting this prosperous economy of visitors,” he said.
Mingle said that while many business owners want to do the right thing, the challenge can be overwhelming.
“Even if you have taken the step to start looking on Google” How do I cut the carbon impacts of my business? “They only hit you with so much information, and not everything is particularly useful,” he said.
That is where this cohort model aims to intervene, offering tools and support from companies and at the same time foster a sense of community around shared values, authorities said.
When it comes to eliminating food waste for entities such as restaurants, Mingle said there are considerations upstream and downstream.
“Upstream is all that happens to produce that article, whether food, a cup or whatever, to reach the consumer. So, when it comes to food, it is everything, from the land that was needed to cultivate food, all processes, process, pack it, transport it, take it to a restaurant and get it on a plate,” he said. “From that point, downstream is elimination.”
Reducing upstream waste when adjusting operations, such as ordering less or redesign menus, can lead to immediate cost savings and a smaller environmental footprint.
“One of the best things that restaurants can do is offer a small and small portion size for a meal they already have,” he said. “Actually, the margins of what the restaurant is benefiting from those meals, and allows self-select people if they know they will not finish a larger typical portion.”
The program will also discuss behavioral design tactics, what Mingle calls “Jedi mind tricks”, to push consumers towards better options. Like how the places in Vail, Colorado, hire staff to classify waste, the goal is to take the load from visitors and other personnel.
“You are not giving people the opportunity to make mistakes if you are doing that service for them,” he said. “Almost all the investigation of behavior change shows that if you want someone to adjust how you are acting, you just have to do it part of the character essentially of the community.”
If the reduction of food waste becomes the norm in Park City, it is housed in the operations of the companies and the expectations of the residents, the visitors will naturally follow their example, the program leaders believe.
“We are very aware that tourists and visitors will probably be the last people to adopt,” Fleming said. “Our hope is really to saturate it completely within the communities, so that when they are here, it is only a second nature, and it is so obvious that that is what you do too.”
Applications are open until April 28, and the Espeuro Foundation recruits a mixture of participants from all over the county. Companies interested in participating in the program can run before 11:59 pm on April 28 online: Tinyurl.com/2fysv5zh.
Related stories
[ad_2]
Source link
