This is an excerpt from one of my latest open-access articles published via International Journal of Hospitality Management
Suggested citation: Camilleri, M.A. (2025). Sustainability accounting and disclosures of responsible restaurant practices in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 126, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2024.104051
Currently, humanity is generating more than one billion tons of food waste, including packaging, biodegradable edible food scraps, fruits and vegetables, among others. Together, these items accumulate about one hundred and thirty-two (132) kilograms per capita and almost one-fifth (1/5) of all food available to consumers (Department of Energy, 2024). Out of the total food that was wasted in 2022, sixty per cent (60 %) was produced by private households, twenty-eight per cent (28 %) originated from food and beverage service providers including hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafes, and twelve percent (12 %) came from retail stores (UNEP, 2024).
Frequently, food items and their ingredients are wasted because of a decline in quality, due to contamination, overstocking and/or spoilage issues, as they are not consumed before their expiry date, resulting in their decay (Pearson et al., 2025). Notwithstanding, the preparers of food tend to over-produce perishable items that are uneaten by consumers. Such spoilt products and surplus food will usually end up in municipal landfills, resulting in negative repercussions for our fragile natural environments, bio diversities and ecosystems (EuroStat, 2023). In other words, the piling up of food waste is inevitably causing pollution and irreparable damage| including global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) that can exacerbate climate change for our planet.
At the time of writing, food loss and waste are triggering eight to ten per cent (8–10 %) of annual (GHG) emissions and are taking up the equivalent of almost a third of the world’s agricultural land. The disposal, handling and accumulation of food waste is costing the global economy about USD 1 trillion (UNEP, 2024). Therefore, the reduction of food loss is critical to increase the efficiency of the globe’s food systems, to improve food security for every nation and its citizens, whilst decreasing production costs in the value chain.
In this light, the rationale of this contribution is to raise awareness on responsible food and beverage operations in the hospitality industry. Primarily, it identifies sustainable practices that are intended to reduce food loss and waste from the value chain through sustainable sourcing of food products, by implementing sound inventory management systems as well as by promoting ecofriendly behaviors during responsible food preparation and consumption practices. A thorough review of the extant literature suggests that, currently, there are just a few articles that shed light on responsible food and beverage operations (Oke et al., 2023, Yong et al., 2024), although a number of institutions and organizations are raising the agenda on sustainable food production behaviors among practitioners (EU, 2021, HOTREC, 2017).
Secondly, this article highlights the importance of sustainability accounting and reporting during each stage of food preparation, production and consumption (Huang et al., 2023, Lee et al., 2024, Lin et al., 2024). It clearly explains in a pragmatic manner how environmental, social and governance (ESG) accountability standards, like the ones formulated by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Food Loss and Waste Accounting and Reporting Standard (FLW Standard) among others, could be applied in the hospitality industry context.
Therefore, the research objectives of this contribution are threefold: (i) It identifies and discusses about sustainable practices that hotels, restaurants and cafes can implement to minimize food loss and waste; (ii) It sheds light on different regulatory instruments including guiding principles and standards, that can be utilized for ESG accounting, disclosures, audit and assurance of food and beverage services, including those operated by hospitality practitioners; (iii) It advances a theoretical model that clearly summarizes different aspects related to ESG dimensions.
This paper is also available through ResearchGate, Academia, Social Science Research Network (SSRN) and Open Access Repository.
Substantia Mea 
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