Comwell Hotels has received the prestigious food waste award "The Striver" for its significant work to reduce food waste across the food chain. The award was founded by the Danish Retail Association (DSK) and honors individuals and businesses that make a difference in the fight against food waste.
"It is always a difficult decision to choose only one person or company that makes a difference in reducing food waste, given the many initiatives that are underway around the country. However, Comwell's work stands out from the crowd. This is because they have worked to cover all aspects of the issue, involving both production, employees, and the public. In particular, their training and education of employees and the resulting involvement and teamwork have made a big impression," says Jannick Nytoft, CEO of the Danish Retail Association.
"In addition, Comwell has actively shared its experiences on a variety of platforms, such as articles, podcasts, panel discussions, cookbooks, and videos. This helps to spread the message and is a great source of inspiration for others, both within and outside the industry. It is therefore a great pleasure and a source of pride for us to present the food waste award "The Striver" this year to such a worthy recipient and inspiration as Comwell Hotels," says Jannick Nytoft.
The award was first presented in 2018, and past recipients include Stop Spild af Mad, Landbrug & Fødevarer, H.K.H. Prinsesse Marie, Rema 1000, and now Comwell Hotels.
With great joy, Comwell CEO Peter Schelde was able to accept the award, presented by Minister of Food Jacob Jensen on Wednesday morning at Comwell Copenhagen Portside.
"We are very proud to receive this prestigious food waste award and see it as a great recognition of our employees' dedicated efforts in the fight against food waste. We have been working hard to reduce food waste at Comwell for many years and have also set ambitious goals and implemented many initiatives to continuously develop and improve ourselves. We continuously measure food waste in our kitchens, train our chefs to become Green Chefs through our new training program, and optimize our purchasing and use of raw materials," says HR & Sustainability Director at Comwell, Mai-Britt Jensen, and emphasizes:
"However, reducing food waste is not something that we as a hotel chain can achieve on our own. It requires common high standards and solid partnerships across the entire industry."
Jury's justification for choosing Comwell Hotels
Overall, Comwell has acted as a "first mover" for an entire industry in the area of food waste. With their focus on production, employees, and the public, Comwell has put food waste on the agenda within the hotel and restaurant industry. This has been done by, among other things, measuring food waste, recycling, portioning, and purchasing date-expired and irregular goods from their suppliers. In addition, there is a particular focus on the training and education of employees, where, with the help of experts, the focus has been on learning about respect for raw materials and educating employees on food waste and raw material utilization. At the same time, Comwell has actively shared its experiences for the benefit of the industry and the rest of the world through conferences, presentations, articles, podcasts, panel discussions, cookbooks, films, and collaborations across industries - to great inspiration for others.
Signe Kamper Kankelborg
PR & Communications Manager
Comwell Hotels
+45 23328577 / skk@comwell.com
