OXO Tower Restaurant

The OXO Tower Restaurant, Bar and Brasserie opened in 1996 and is owned by Harvey Nichols. As a founding member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, it has aligned its work with the three pillars of the Food Made Good Standard: sourcing, society and the environment since 2008 and currently holds the highest accolade, a 3 star-rating.

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OUR AIM

Achieve a 50% reduction of food waste per cover against the benchmark measurement in 2019 by 2030, aligned with the UN SDG 12.3 goal which forms part of WRAP’s Courtauld 2030 voluntary agreement.

OUR OBJECTIVE

  • Taking part in the Food Waste Bad Taste pilot with the Sustainable Restaurant Association in 2019 allowed us to set a baseline.
  • Initially we aimed to reduce food waste by 7%, however, in 2021 after the Covid closures, we achieved a 50% reduction.
  • Food waste fluctuates which means we consistently measure and report this alongside menu and other business changes. This helps us to maintain the 50% reduction against our 2019 baseline.

 

TIP

Work with the whole team. Sometimes solutions come from unexpected areas in the business. The introduction of a new booking system has allowed the team to identify booking changes sooner, to allow enough time to reduce the potential for overordering and overproduction.

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KEY LEARNINGS

  • Cross departmental communication is key to ensure food waste measurements and changes are understood and acted on.
  • Introducing sharing platters and smaller dishes helps to reduce plate waste.
  • Improving the quality of our bread offer and adding a charge reduced wastage.
  • Our kitchen porters are key-informants on where food waste happens.
  • Automating the weighing of food waste, led to more consistent data but caused the team to become disengaged as they did not see the positive results.

IMPROVEMENTS MADE

  • In our baseline assessment we measured 0.5kg of food waste per cover.
  • In 2023 we measured 0.208kg food waste per cover.

WHAT HAS CHANGED

  • We introduced a high-quality bread offer which guests pay for, reducing our bread waste. We also reviewed portion sizes, removed garnishes which were not part of the recipe such as cress, and introduced sharing platters to reduce plate waste.
  • We measure food waste weekly not just once every half a year so we can act on changes.
  • We collaborate with food surplus charities when significant food surplus occurs.
  • We piloted technology to measure food waste but found using the Guardians of Grub calculator was better for engaging staff with food waste action.
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