In this era of modernization, eco-friendly solutions have become the need of the hour. Sustainable technology is an eco-friendly solution that allows hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality businesses to minimize paper and food waste without hampering the quality of the dining experience alongside speed and efficiency.
This blog post will let you know about various sustainable technologies that help hospitality businesses reduce paper waste to a certain extent.
What Does it Mean by Sustainable Technology?
Sustainable technology helps restaurants reduce waste and maintain efficiency simultaneously. Through sustainable technology, you can manage and reduce your restaurant’s food and paper waste considerably.
Luckily, you can use various restaurant technology solutions, including guest-facing point-of-sale technology, kitchen display screens, an integrated customer relationship management (CRM) solution, digital menu boards, delivery and driver management solutions, online ordering systems, etc.
Apart from this, hospitality businesses can rely on a restaurant menu plugin that enables them to simplify their online ordering systems comprehensively.
By doing so, they can develop an intuitive restaurant menu on their WooCommerce sites and sell their scrumptious foods online.
5 Types of Sustainable Technology that Help Restaurants Reduce Paper Waste
Sustainable technology does play a crucial role in minimizing paper waste and optimizing the performance of restaurants and hotels. In reality, they have so many options when reducing paper waste according to their business needs.
Here are 5 key types of sustainable technology that allow restaurants to reduce paper waste and exceed their customer’s expectations a result:
1. Digital Menu Boards
You can perceive digital menu boards as electronic menus shown on digital screens. Interestingly, you can access these digital screens on your smartphone without any hassle.
Digital menus are generally more helpful than conventional paper menus and provide numerous benefits. For example, you can easily update them as per your preferences.
They are contactless and are on the lower side cost-wise. Furthermore, digital menus are environment-friendly and encourage larger orders and quick turnover.
Through digital menus, hospitality businesses can replace traditional paper menus and provide a better user experience to their customers.
2. Tabletop tablets
As interactive digital devices, tabletop tablets help customers or guests place orders, browse menus, and request services in hotels and restaurants.
Tabletop tablets are placed on restaurant tables and offer an engaging user interface to customers who want to enjoy the next-level dining experience. Guests or customers can place and personalize their orders and make payments online at the same time.
These interactive devices allow hotel staff to improve performance by focusing on other crucial tasks. In addition, they help customers make the most of several perks like menu information, entertainment, and painless payment procedures.
3. Kitchen Display Screens
Kitchen display screens are another sustainable technology that helps restaurants make the environment eco-friendly. This technology serves the same purpose as digital menu boards, i.e., to reduce paper waste smartly.
From order kiosks to kitchen display screens, Restaurants and hotels can make their order fulfillment processes seamless without using paper.
4. Electronic receipts
There is no denying that conventional paper receipts cause unnecessary waste. Through electronic receipts, restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality businesses can minimize paper consumption considerably.
Converting to electronic receipts from traditional paper receipts is not as difficult as you think. Restaurants or hotels can send their guests and customers electronic receipts through text messages and emails.
For that reason, they can depend on a customized digital receipt system, depending on their business size or volume. Digital receipts are conducive to the environment and provide convenience to customers who frequently misplace or lose their paper receipts.
5Sustainable packaging
There is no harm in using the sustainable packaging option for delivery and takeout orders. Restaurants and hotels can use eco-friendly solutions like compostable or biodegradable packaging and replace containers or disposable paper bags accordingly.
The good thing about these environment-friendly alternatives is they use renewable resources. Corn starch, bamboo, cotton, biopolymers, etc., are prominent renewable resources.
Online reservation systems
Online reservation is another way of booking hospitality services over the internet. Customers or guests can book their rooms and tables in advance without visiting restaurants and hotels in person.
Fortunately, they can access online reservation systems anywhere on their desired devices. From the restaurant’s perspective, they will not have to manage customers’ schedules and reservations using paper.
This way, they can overcome the paper wastage issue to a considerable extent.
Customer engagement is vital in eliminating paper waste
When eliminating paper waste, primarily in the hospitality industry, restaurants must educate their customers. In reality, providing awareness and education to customers regarding paper waste is beneficial.
Restaurants and hotels can smartly utilize their official websites to educate their target customers about their sustainability efforts. Moreover, they can use different social media platforms to promote their sustainability initiatives and encourage customers to prefer digital receipts over traditional paper receipts.
Above all, hotels and restaurants can offer incentives to customers who choose sustainable technologies when confirming their bookings or reservations.
Wrapping Up
Once restaurants and hotels implement the strategies mentioned above, they can smartly minimize paper waste and make their businesses sustainable.
That said, customers also need to play their role in reducing paper waste. They can adapt to various sustainable technologies, such as online reservation systems, digital menu boards, tabletop tablets, etc., and contribute to an eco-friendly future.
