Melco Resorts & Entertainment has successfully cut plate waste in employee dining areas by up to 35%.
In 2020, Melco rolled out the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) system, Winnow Vision, across its properties to lead the charge against food waste in employee dining room kitchens to target overproduced waste. Tracking detailed food waste data enabled the teams to identify post-consumer waste (i.e. plate waste) as the main source of food wastage in employee dining rooms.
To directly tackle plate waste, Melco collaborated with Winnow and London School of Economics (LSE) on a project to combine Winnow’s new post-consumer waste measurement product, Winnow Sense – a touchless system designed to measure plate waste, with a study to monitor consumer behavior.
A series of interventions were designed by the LSE Department of Psychological & Behavioural Science, and the study concluded that anthropomorphized food (i.e. pictures that depicted happy and sad food) had significant impacts on behavior leading to reduced levels of food waste.
The project has been successful, with interventions shown to reduce food waste by as much as 35%, and qualitative feedback from colleagues showing a shift in behavior both at work and at home. While Winnow Sense has been installed in all employee dining rooms across Melco’s integrated resorts in Macau and Manila, Melco and Winnow are now in the process of exploring applications in consumer-facing dining areas.
Ms. Denise Chen, Senior Sustainability Adviser of Melco, said, “Given the global impact of waste on the health of people, food security and the planet, we take food waste very seriously. In 2020, we began our partnership with Winnow AI technology to reduce food waste in the kitchens of our employee dining rooms. We were excited by the opportunity to partner with Winnow and LSE to trial awareness and communication campaigns to encourage colleagues to change behavior in relation to plate waste. We are pleased to be the first company to trial Winnow Sense and will be using findings from the study to further communicate to our colleagues to reduce plate waste on an ongoing basis.”
Mr. Marc Zornes, CEO and co-founder of Winnow said, “We couldn’t be more proud of the team at Melco who have already cut food waste significantly with Winnow but wanted to go even further. This blueprint designed in collaboration with world renowned experts from the London School of Economics presents huge opportunities for operators everywhere to help their diners make more sustainable food choices whilst maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction.”
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