FAB 2024
Sustainability in the spotlight
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s ambitious and detailed approach to making its F&B business sustainable came under the spotlight on day two, in a session that featured Royal Schiphol Group Business Manager Food & Beverage Bram Kreté, Conceptional Managing Partner Fred van Aken and Avolta Senior Vice President F&B Commercial Bastiaan van Asten.
Kreté set the scene with an overview of an airport that serves more than 60 million passengers and 400,000 flights a year. Its main F&B concessionaire is Avolta, which operates 70 of the airport’s 85 outlets.
Royal Schiphol Group Business Manager Food & Beverage Bram Kreté stressed the urgency of the sustainability drive
Giving a big picture declaration on sustainability, Kreté, who noted 32% of global C02 impact is related to food, said: “In a world where the clock is ticking against us, time is running out. We stand at the crossroads; we have to make decisions and a call to action in our shared efforts against greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. It has never been as urgent as it is right now.
“The beginning of our journey must start with acceptance of change. Schiphol has the ambition to become the most sustainable airport, but our commercial activities tend to lag behind. By partnering up with our F&B main partner Avolta and engaging the expertise of Conceptional, we have a new F&B strategy which has begun a long journey down the sustainable food route.
“We can influence a lot from what we do and the positions we take.”
Van Aken said his consultancy company Conceptional helps food service brands and organisations to become sustainable in a holistic, realistic and above all pragmatic way.
“We have to try to push the consumers as much as possible towards more sustainable behaviour [in how they consume food and what they choose to eat].
Conceptional Managing Partner Fred van Aken: Overcoming complexity
“Of course commercial viability is important, so there is a limit to what you can do. But you can persuade them [the consumers], you can nudge them, you can try to get more communication about sustainability, make sure that the menu boards are organised in such a way that the sustainability effects of what we eat are highlighted.
“Talking about sustainability is not easy. It’s complex. And we need to embrace the complexity and take a step-by-step approach to integrating sustainability into the F&B business at the airport.”
Expanding on what is meant by taking a holistic approach to food sustainability in airport F&B, van Aken highlighted focus areas including food and packaging, kitchen processes, design and interior of F&B venues, organisation, and communication and branding of the food offer.
He noted that step by step all these areas can be improved, to the point where a new legal framework regarding sustainability requirements can be put in place for new airport F&B concession contracts.
Van Aken said: “We need to make sure that new entrants, new partners, five to ten years from now have a very clear framework to work within from a sustainability perspective.”
Key F&B sustainability ambitions for Schiphol Airport include a -50% reduction of F&B C02E, 60% plant-based protein in ingredient volume and 100% zero waste by 2030; and concessionaires to have 100% compliance by 2025 with Schiphol food-sourcing guidelines which promote sustainability.
Avolta’s van Asten focused on how food sources and ingredients impact global C02 levels, noting that about 3,000 different products are used in F&B across the various airport dining offers.
He highlighted the need to use less and source more alternatives for cow’s milk and more plant-based alternatives to meats due to their major impacts on carbon footprint, along with many other eye-opening examples.
Avolta Senior Vice President F&B Commercial Bastiaan van Asten: Taking suppliers on a combined journey
“So there are a lot of suppliers,” he said. “And we need to really ask them, how can we work together? Most of them still have no clue that we need to start a process. We need to be talking to all our suppliers and really digging into their production systems and their C02 impacts. We need a starting point; we’re going to get really engaged with all suppliers and make sure that we improve every day.”
He concluded: “We have started on our sustainability journey. There is climate change, which we can all see. The world is on fire, temperatures are soaring in some cities, there are heavy rainfalls and floods, there’s droughts. We need to change.”
Discussing Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s approach to making its F&B business as sustainable as possible with Dermot Davitt were, left to right, Bastiaan van Asten, Bram Kreté and Fred van Aken
FAB eZine
August 2024
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