Sustainability in the restaurant industry : a Cape Town study

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The main aims of this thesis were to focus on the restaurant system in Cape Town with a view to creating a support mechanism for a move to more sustainable practices. A review of the literature found that despite a growing global population, the pressure on resources and consumption has been driven by the global middle class. Over half the world lives in cities and dualistic urban systems reinforce access to resources by excluding the poor and favouring the wealthy. Resource flows and consumption have degraded ecosystems, created waste and emissions. We use resources faster than they can be replenished and have exceeded the earth's regenerative capacity.Counter to this, there is evidence of decoupling resource use from economic growth. Similarly, the industrialised food system has been created on external inputs such as fertiliser and insecticides, largely derived from fossil fuels. Food produced in the system uses energy, produces waste, depletes the soil and thwarts biodiversity. The global food system counters local food economies. This thesis argues that a sustainable system would have the economy as a basis for a better and equitable environment for current and future generations within ecological and regenerative capacity. As a city Cape Town reflects the inequalities and unsustainability of the global system, with vast disparities in wealth and opportunity.Restaurants can control flows of energy, food and waste, support people and the environment, as well as communicate and educate consumers. By collaborative efforts they can lay the basis for local food economies. Restaurants connect consumers to their food and make decisions about where the food comes from, how it will be prepared and disposed of and who will engage in that preparation. The restaurant sector can contribute to sustainability in its use of resources as well as its employment, community engagement and communication practices. This in turn supports local economies and impacts on the broader sustainability of the city.Research into the restaurant system in Cape Town showed that there is consumer interest in sustainability. There is evidence of restaurants making efforts towards sustainable endeavours. Within Cape Town there is the opportunity to look for more sustainable energy, work around local and seasonal menus, support local food economies, and control wastage. Local food economies can be supported while staff can also be treated fairly and given growth opportunities. Endeavours can be communicated as a way of shifting current unsustainable consumption patterns.The conclusions drawn from the thesis suggest that like the Sustainable Restaurant Associations (SRA) and Dinegreen there is space for a support mechanism for the restaurant industry where individual restaurants can be helped to move to sustainability and collaborate with other stakeholders. The recommendations of the thesis are to create an organisation that can evolve into a co-operative that will bring restaurants together and map out the changes they make. They need to be supported with expertise and audits of their current practice so that they can set goals for the future with regard to their environmental and social actions.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University