Now, it is just 200km from the farm to your table

Keeping our carbon footprint in mind, city hotels and restaurants are taking small steps towards reducing its impact each time we step into their confines.

“We procure locavore (locally grown food) ingredients that are basically sourced from local farmers within 200km of our hotel in order to make it the most effective and zero carbon emitting food chain,” says junior sous chef Dhaval Ajmera, ITC Grand Central. He explains that foods that have to travel less to reach their final destinations create smaller carbon footprints.

An ongoing exercise for the last two years, their quest for “responsible luxury” is driven towards making the guest dine at their restaurants with a clear conscience.

Not to forget the Bio Blocks installed at the urinals which are waterless and save up to 101,000 litres of water a year.

Or the OWC, which converts food waste to manure; the lounge area where the lights remain switched off during the day and the large open windows and sunlight are brought to full use to save energy.

“We have started the ‘farm to table menu’ as an effort to provide our guests the freshest vegetables straight from the farm to their table and ensure less spoilage and better taste,” informs Dharmesh Karmokar, vice president (luxury), Dish Hospitality which runs the Aurus restaurant at Juhu.

It makes use of lots of seasonal and local vegetables from a supplier’s farm in Pune, which is delivered in eight hours to serve up a menu that has a lower environmental impact. Its pesticide free vegetables are part of the organic farming procedure which generally makes use of animal manure and uses about one third less fossil fuel.

The Oberoi, Mumbai, has installed an Incomm software which ensures energy saving measures each time a guest leaves his room.

After half an hour of the guest’s departure from the room, the temperature is automatically controlled and the air conditioner is minimalised to save energy.

Installation of solar heating technology, bio methanation plants which convert the methane emanating from food waste to be used instead of LPG gas for cooking at its cafeteria and sourcing local produce as much as possible are some initiatives that ensure a guest is not adding carbon footprints when he steps into any of the Taj Group of hotels.

Chef Irfan Pabaney of Indigo says, “We are planning to visit the Farmer’s Market at Bandra which has begun selling organic vegetables.”

With restaurants accounting for the retail world’s largest energy use, such measures are a step in the right direction. While lauding such measures by city hotels, Dr Shyam Asolekar, professor, Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT-Bombay, says, “An integrated approach and bold steps to minimise resource consumption and reduce carbon footprints is the need of the hour.”