Building Capacity during a Global Pandemic

The Westin Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Total square footage: 17,000 sq. ft.      |      Rooms: 443

The Westin Kuala Lumpur is an experiential hotel in the pulsating streets of Bukit Bintang. Under the Marriott International Group, the hotel strives to improve its food waste reduction efforts and set itself the goal to spearhead such efforts among other Marriott properties in Malaysia.

As business was slowing down in the early stages of the global pandemic, The Westin Kuala Lumpur did not shy away from challenging its operations in terms of sustainability efforts, in particular their current food waste management practices.

Working towards Marriott’s global goals, The Westin Kuala Lumpur was seeking cost-effective solutions to achieve measurable results for food waste within their hotel kitchens and decided to partner with WWF-Malaysia to identify and implement these solutions. With support from WWF-Malaysia and with the executive sous chef as the property’s food waste champion, the team at The Westin introduced a new separation scheme that would allow the property to better separate its food waste at source and track it more accurately.

A robust bin assessment was conducted via a kitchen walkthrough, followed by the implementation of new labels, signs, and color coding for different waste streams. As the pandemic and a national lockdown evolved, the property’s business operations were highly restricted and had to close for some time too. Despite these difficult times, the team at The Westin Kuala Lumpur stayed energized and encouraged relevant staff to build their capacity on effective food waste management. The LobsterInk online training course allowed their staff to learn about the principles of food waste in hotel kitchens from the comfort and safe space of their homes. As restrictions are easing and the hotel is looking at reopening its operations, the team at the Westin is ready to start tracking its food waste and report it to WWF-Malaysia while reassessing the way food is prepared, presented, and served.