Going Green in the Kitchen: Exploring Environmental Sustainability Awareness in the Restaurant Industry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63556/jotags.2026.1908Keywords:
Environmental sustainability, Green practices, Restaurant businessesAbstract
This study aims to examine food and beverage businesses' awareness of sustainability, the current state of their sustainability practices, their motivations, and the obstacles they face. The research employed qualitative methods and involved semi-structured interviews with the owners/managers/chefs of eleven upscale restaurants in Kayseri. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that operators' awareness of the issue, both their own and that of the food and beverage sector, is limited based on participants’ perceptions. Practices focus more on reducing food waste, suggesting that preventing energy waste remains at the personal and behavioral level rather than through smart systems. Motivations are mostly culturally based, and moral beliefs play a significant role, for example, the fact that throwing away food, especially bread, is not considered a proper behavior from a religious perspective. Factors such as lack of knowledge, inadequate legal regulations, customer attitudes, staff and time constraints have emerged as challenges to sustainability. The study emphasizes the importance of legal regulations and education to make sustainability practices permanent and standard. By addressing sustainability practices in food and beverage businesses from operators’ perspective, this study contributes to the literature by revealing the motivations and structural barriers encountered in the local context.
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