How the Food Made Good Standard Supports Hotels

Sustainability is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’, but a core part of what many guests have come to expect from hospitality businesses. At the same time, hotel guests still want to feel pampered. Luke Peng, Director of Food and Beverage at JW Marriot Chengdu, says, “While many travellers express interest in sustainable options, willingness to pay premium prices or inconvenience themselves remains variable. Balancing sustainability goals with guest comfort and satisfaction requires careful communication and incentives.” 

Astrid Matko, Assistant Food & Beverage Director at Aethos Sardinia, agrees. “Whether they are on holiday or a business trip, travellers expect a certain level of comfort and convenience," she says. “Designing the encouragement of more sustainable behaviours in a soft, seamless way is a more effective approach than hard imposition.” 

Therese Sweeney, Food & Beverage Support Specialist at Staycity Group, says, “One of our biggest challenges is balancing long-term sustainability commitments and goals with the operational reality of a fast-paced, price-sensitive industry. Our guests expect environmentally responsible practices, but they also expect convenience, comfort and affordability. It can be quite difficult to balance the integration of sustainable solutions without increasing labour and costs, and without compromising on quality.” 

In this article, these three Food Made Good-certified businesses share some of the challenges that hotels are facing as they work to balance these considerations, reducing their environmental and social impact while also meeting guest expectations. We’ll show how the Food Made Good Standard can support hotels over these hurdles by informing strategy, providing guidance, improving efficiencies and celebrating successes.   

Always on 

The always-on nature of the hotel sector brings its own unique challenges. “Unlike independent restaurants, hotels are operational around the clock,” Astrid says. “This increases the effect of operational decisions with regards to energy, water, waste, chemicals and cleaning products.” 

“This is compounded because guests have considerable freedom in how they use these resources,” Therese points out. “They may leave heating or air conditioning running continuously or use water without constraint, and it is difficult to monitor or control this in real time. At Staycity, our properties also include kitchenettes in every room, which adds another layer of complexity. It becomes harder to track and manage food waste effectively and to understand sourcing when cooking takes place at the individual guest level rather than in a centralised kitchen.” 

Luke also points to waste management as a particularly difficult area. “Hotels generate a diverse range of waste streams at scale. Managing this variety requires sophisticated waste reduction and recycling systems.” 

The Standard offers tailored guidance for each business, helping decision-makers to identify the most impactful changes to make and offering advice on how to go about this. 

Ongoing support from our team also includes guidance on upcoming legislation, interviews with industry leaders, insightful panel events and access to our Knowledge Library, a growing collection of practical resources available only to our network and free to download — all of which can provide solutions to your biggest challenges.

What’s more, signing up to the Food Made Good Standard connects you to a vibrant and passionate global community, facilitating relationship building and knowledge sharing across the sector. We’re all stronger when we work together. “Being part of the FMG network offers access to best practices, peer support and shared knowledge that accelerates progress across the industry,” says Astrid.  

Operational complexity 

Hotel operations can be complicated. “A hotel runs several businesses at the same time — restaurants, bars, in-room dining, functions, housekeeping, spas, pools — so integrating each operational unit to work towards the same sustainability goal can be operationally complex,” says Astrid. For international groups, this complexity can extend to many different sites across different countries, cultures and even continents.  

Astrid shares how the Standard was central in creating a group-wide blueprint for sustainability. “The report sharpened our focus and allowed us to identify a clear set of priority areas rather than disperse efforts across too many initiatives. It guided us toward high-impact actions such as formalised procurement, deeper local sourcing and structured staff training,” she explains. “Our initial assessment — conducted at Aethos Sardinia, where we received two stars — has laid the groundwork for Aethos Mallorca and rest of the Aethos collection. The Food Made Good pillars now organise our sustainability initiatives for all our F&B outlets.” 

Translating big-picture goals into daily operations 

Day-to-day pressures remain a sustainability hurdle for the entire hospitality sector. “Due to the fast pace of daily operations, high seasonal peaks and ongoing staffing challenges, sustainability initiatives can drop in priority, and are often delayed or dropped completely,” says Astrid. “It’s challenging to transform intention into action in a systematic way.” 

The SRA has been working with the hospitality industry since 2010, and we understand this industry’s nuances, quirks and pressure points. We know operators are under high pressure on a daily basis; that’s we designed Food Made Good to break big-picture sustainability goals down into manageable, bite-sized actions. Every business that completes the Standard receives a tailored report that does just this, outlining the next steps on their sustainability journey.  

“The Standard provides a practical, hospitality-specific roadmap and a clear, structured Framework. It speaks directly to how hotels operate and offers actionable guidance for every part of the business,” says Astrid. “Insights from the Standard are now integrated into our manuals, procurement procedures, training and team briefings, ensuring sustainability shapes our everyday decisions rather than sitting as a separate project.” 

Building sustainability into strategy 

Those smaller daily choices and actions begin to add up, informing your overall strategy. “The Food Made Good assessment identifies where the biggest opportunities lie, highlighting both strengths and blind spots. This removes uncertainty and helps teams focus their efforts where they will have the greatest impact,” says Astrid. Because the evaluation needs to be completed every two years to maintain an active certification, the Standard is a great way to maintain accountability and and motivation, encouraging a culture of continuous improvement. 

At Staycity, the FMG report has served as a valuable guide for refining and reprioritising the strategy, says Therese. “The Standard highlighted areas where we are performing strongly, while also identifying the areas where further improvement is needed, giving us clear priorities to focus on. We expect that addressing these gaps will lead to progress when our operations are next assessed.” 

As you progress, the Food Made Good Standard keeps pointing the way forward, providing direction and support on how to improve even further. “Having a transparent score provides a sense of progress and motivates teams,” says Astrid. “It creates a clear starting point and a shared ambition for the next cycle of improvement.”  

The need for credible sustainability marketing 

Guests want destinations that reflect their own values; in Booking.com research conducted in 2025, 93% of global travellers said they want to make more sustainable travel choices and to some extent have done so. Demonstrable sustainability credentials can help guests to make an initial decision on which hotel to stay in; research suggests that eco-certified hotels enjoy 23% higher booking conversion rates than those without certifications. In the longer term, it also enhances brand loyalty and makes it more likely that guests will return. At the same time, people are more sceptical of sustainability claims than ever before, and greenwashing is a sure-fire way to damage your brand.  

Rigorous, evidence-driven third-party certification provides a means of reassuring customers, staff, suppliers and stakeholders that your business is operating in ethical and responsible ways — without any danger of greenwashing. “Standing out in a market where many hotels describe themselves as eco-friendly can be a challenge,” says Astrid. “Independent certification differentiates hotels in a market where sustainability is increasingly a deciding factor for guests, travel partners and investors. It provides a trustworthy alternative to generic ‘green’ marketing and gives you a competitive advantage grounded in credibility.” 

“A certification like Food Made Good brings structure, accountability and recognition,” says Therese. “For Staycity, the Food Made Good Standard has helped us to benchmark performance and identify our blind spots — while also highlighting our achievements, reassuring our guests and partners, and strengthening overall brand trust and perception.” 

Transparent communications about measurable progress can form an extremely effective part of your marketing strategy. “Certifications provide independent verification, helping hotels differentiate themselves from competitors who are greenwashing by making unsubstantiated claims,” says Luke. “This builds trust with environmentally conscious guests, corporate clients and stakeholders. Certifications serve as powerful marketing tools that can be highlighted in promotional materials, websites and booking platforms to attract sustainability-minded customers, giving certified hotels a competitive edge.” 

Cost management 

“Because of the tight margins in hospitality and increasing operational costs, proving that sustainability is not in conflict with profitability is a challenge,” says Astrid. “However, we have found that sustainability practices lead to operational efficiency, waste reduction and long-term business resilience.”  

The Standard encourages cost reductions through improving efficiencies, reducing energy and water use and carefully managing waste. In the meantime, communications about your initiatives and accomplishments can also attract more customers and boost brand loyalty. What’s more, people are increasingly looking for employers who can demonstrate environmental and social responsibility — so having the Food Made Good Standard can make recruitment easier and improve your retention rates, both of which represent further cost savings.   

“The FMG Framework highlights actions that improve financial performance — such as optimised energy use, better stock control and smarter procurement,” Astrid continues. “Sustainability becomes a driver of profitability, not a cost.” 

What are the real impacts of the Food Made Good Standard? 

To finish our conversation, we asked our three operators to share some tangible results they’ve seen from undertaking the Standard and working with The SRA. 

“Working with The SRA and completing the Standard has already led to several positive and measurable outcomes for Staycity,” says Therese. “We’ve strengthened our internal F&B policy, which now more effectively supports our ESG goals for the years ahead. The process has also informed our supplier conversations, enabling us to be more selective and aligned in our onboarding of new partners.”  

“The detailed scoring across different sustainability categories has helped us identify our strongest and weakest performance areas objectively,” says Luke. “This data allows us to allocate resources strategically to the areas that will deliver the most significant environmental impact and operational improvements. Our Associates’ awareness and understanding of sustainability have also been significantly enhanced.” 

“Undertaking the Food Made Good Standard has helped us strengthen our internal structure by formalising procurement, improving stock management and embedding clear guidelines for waste and energy use,” says Astrid. “These changes have already made our operations more efficient, reduced over-ordering and supported better cost control across our F&B outlets. It has also deepened the engagement of both our teams and our guests. Sustainability is now part of our training and daily decision-making, which has encouraged staff to contribute ideas and take ownership of improvements. At the same time, guests increasingly recognise and value the authenticity behind our sourcing and practices, reinforcing their trust in Aethos and strengthening our overall market positioning.” 

Interested in what the Standard can do for your hotel? Learn more about the business benefits here, or reach out to Will at will@thesra.org with any questions. You can also find an overview of the process here. 

If you’d like a quick overview of where you stand on your own sustainability journey, take our free five-minute Food For Thought quiz! 

Lead image courtesy of JW Marriott Chengdu.