07.07.2021.
The pilot-project “Reduce food waste, cook for your guests” implemented by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund was presented today in Pula at the Park Plaza Histria Hotel. The project is implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Ministry of Tourism and Sport, and the Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering of the University of Zagreb.The event was attended by the Ambassador of South Korea to the Republic of Croatia, H.E. Dong Chan Kim, director of the Directorate for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness of Tourist Destinations at the Ministry of Tourism and Sport Slavko Štefičar, dean of the Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering of the University in Zagreb Hrvoje Meaški, PhD, deputy mayor of Istria County Tulio Demetlika, deputy mayor of Pula Ivona Močenić, general manager of Park Plaza Histria Tomislav Korošec, other representatives of the Park Plaza Histria Hotel Group, and of the local and regional self-government.
Deputy director of the Fund, Alenka Košiša Čičin-Šain, pointed out that the hotel sector, as one of the most important parts of the tourism and hospitality industry, has a significant impact on the environment and that transition to the green business model would become inevitable. “We, the Fund, have been involved in waste management for years. Croatia has obligations we have to achieve in line with EU and national legislation, meaning that by 2022 we have to separately collect 40% of the mass of produced biowaste. This pilot-project is aimed at reducing produced food waste, and at proper separate collection and disposal of waste,” said Mrs Košiša Čičin-Šain, adding that the implementation will be supported by the food waste treatment machine that was donated to the hotel by the Korean company for a time-limited period.
The Ambassador of South Korea to Croatia, H.E. Dong Chan Kim, expressed his appreciation of the opportunity to take part in the event, emphasising his support for all environmental and nature protection projects Croatia was implementing. “Food waste has long been a significant problem in South Korea. Korea produces 15,000 tonnes of food waste daily and that makes 30% of total waste. The mix of food waste reduction measures introduced by Korean government helped increase the rate of recycling from 2% to 95% and had a profound impact on the environment and raising consumer awareness. Instead of being landfilled, food waste is now being turned into compost, livestock feed as well as biomass and biofuels. The size of the Korean food processing machine market in 2020 was 1 billion dollars from which 10% went for home usage devices and 90% for commercial usage (restaurants, hotels etc.), and Korea’s food processing technology is today exported to Europe, USA, and Asia,” said H.E. Dong Chan Kim in Pula today.
“One of the goals of this pilot-project is to raise the awareness of guests at the hotel by reminding them about the importance of environmental protection, and to subtly inspire them to change their habits, in the sense that they should not fill the plates with more food than they intend to eat, because this excess food will have to be thrown away. Moreover, hotels around the world that implemented the food waste prevention strategies reduced its quantities by some 30%, thus reducing the negative environmental impact, they also had significant financial savings due to more rational food handling. The project is contributing to achieving the goals of reducing food waste and the share of biowaste that is landfilled,” explained Maja Feketić, head of the EU Funds Sector at the Fund.
“This is a global movement reaching beyond our national borders, and it has become customary that more demanding and ecologically conscious guests take care of whether they will book a hotel that is environmentally friendly. More guests are recognising this and are looking for green businesses, so in the future this aspect will become increasingly more important for the valorisation of our tourist offer,” said project coordinator Vesna Cetin Krnjević, head of the Department for the implementation of EU projects at the Fund.
Marketing and sales director and member of the Board of Arena Hospitality Group from Pula, Manuela Kraljević, and general manager of the Park Plaza Histria Hotel, Tomislav Korošec, said it was their pleasure to be part of this project. “We are honoured to be part of this pilot-project of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, as the first hotel on the Adriatic to adopt the green business model by reducing food waste. The Arena Hospitality Group has always supported and will continue to support modern and progressive new technologies, and also projects dealing with green and responsible business models in the hospitality industry, and programmes that have already been implemented in many global hotel chains,” said Kraljević.
The Fund launched the pilot-project “Reduce food waste, cook for your guests” in two Croatian hotels – in Pula and in Osijek, with the aim of introducing methods into hotel kitchens that would contribute to reducing food waste. Today’s presentation was preceded by the workshops for the hotel staff, where they learned about the hotels that had adopted the model of planned food management, proper storage of ingredients, and estimating realistic meals quantities. Measurements will be conducted until September in cooperation with the hotel staff and the Environmental Engineering Department at the Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering of the University of Zagreb, and the results will be presented in the autumn.
