Marching towards zero-waste: Armani Hotel Dubai

From solar energy to rain water harvesting, hotels are going every mile to do their bit for the environment nowadays, and the Armani Hotel Dubai, located in the iconic Burj Khalifa, is no exception.

It is advancing its sustainability initiatives and has partnered with leading tech-firm Winnow to avoid wastage of food resources.

Winnow believes food is too valuable to waste, and that technology can transform the way we use food. They have experience of working with hundreds of kitchens and know the pressure food service and hospitality staff are under – from meeting tight profit and loss targets, to making clients or customers happy, keeping the kitchen running smoothly and analysing how to improve and stay competitive.

The hotel has already achieved its target of reducing food wastage by 80% through a technology programme and is heading towards zero food waste to the landfill. Armani Hotel Dubai is now equipped with Winnow’s smart scales to help the chefs in tracking food waste quickly and accurately. The scale automatically records the weight, and the kitchen staff choose the reason and identify the item/dish using the tablet attached to the scale.

Existing measures

Other measures implemented by Armani Hotel Dubai earlier include training chefs and the stewarding department not to mix the food waste with general waste at the cooking stations. The hotel team segregates the waste at source in addition to composting food waste which reduces the amount sent to the landfills.

A food waste recycling machine has been installed in the kitchen to successfully achieve the zero-food waste goal. The machine is capable of drying leftover food from buffets and the staff canteen, and converts 70-80 kg waste food per load to a 14-15 kg food powder form compost soil. It eliminates food disposal costs, reduces the hotel’s carbon footprint and converts food waste into soil nutrients for use on farms and landscaped areas.