Sustainable Meetings

Hotels in the tourism industry have been moving towards adopting sustainable practices that will ensure the protection and preservation of the environment. In this effort, hotels have geared towards providing sustainable meetings in all aspects. However, this paper will discuss hotel practices of sustainable meetings as it relates to food and beverages. The Westin Hotels and Resorts are a group of hotels that operate in major cities in the world. The hotels have a broad variety of options that are geared towards sustainability for meeting planners (“Sustainable Meetings”, 2017). These options include:

·                Use of locally available food which reduces the environmental cost of transporting food from afar. It diminishes the variety of food options on the menu.

·                Use of food that is seasonal to avoid the cost of preserving food with chemicals and preservatives. One can only order food in season.

·                Use of water in massive dispensers and re-filling bottles as opposed to bottled water. This initiative is geared towards re-using bottles and eliminating the cost of transporting and purchasing bottled water. Water in dispensers may not be well treated thus causing health problems for the customers.