How Kitchen CUT and Klimato help hotels turn sustainability into a commercial advantage

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For hotels, measuring environmental impact is only useful if teams can do something with the information.

Knowing the carbon impact of a dish is one thing. Understanding how that relates to its ingredients, cost, margin and operational performance, and then being able to make an informed change, is much more valuable. This is where the integration between Kitchen CUT and Klimato can make sustainability more practical.

Kitchen CUT provides the operational foundation for managing recipes, ingredients, purchasing, costs and menu performance. Klimato adds carbon intelligence at recipe and dish level.

Bringing this information together means chefs and food and beverage teams can consider environmental impact within the same operational processes they already use to manage their menus. Here, we outline eight steps to illustrate what this looks like in practice.

#1. Start with accurate recipe data

The process starts with the recipe. Within Kitchen CUT, hotels can build and manage the information needed to understand how a dish is produced and what it costs.
This includes details such as ingredients, quantities, portions, supplier information, pricing and allergen and nutritional information. That creates a structured operational record for each recipe.

Rather than recipe information sitting in spreadsheets, documents or different systems, teams have a consistent source of data that can be maintained as ingredients, suppliers and prices change.

For hotel groups, this also creates a foundation for managing recipes consistently across multiple properties while allowing for appropriate local variations.

#2. Add carbon intelligence with Klimato

Through Klimato, environmental information can then be added to the recipe picture. Using recipe and ingredient information, Klimato provides carbon insights that help teams understand the environmental impact of individual dishes. This changes sustainability from a broad target into something much more tangible.

Instead of simply knowing that the business needs to reduce its food-related environmental impact, chefs and operators can begin to understand where that impact exists within their menus. Environmental performance can be considered at the recipe and dish levels, alongside the operational information teams already use.

#3. See commercial and environmental information together

This is where the integration becomes particularly valuable. If commercial and sustainability information is stored in disconnected systems, teams have to switch between datasets to understand the complete picture.

Kitchen CUT and Klimato bring those insights together. A chef reviewing a recipe can consider its ingredients and cost alongside its environmental impact, rather than sustainability existing as a separate reporting exercise. This gives teams a more rounded view of a dish and provides the context needed to make practical decisions. It also helps make sustainability relevant to day-to-day operations.

Rather than being something considered periodically by a sustainability team, environmental information can become part of how chefs and F&B teams evaluate recipes and menus.

#4. Identify where there is an opportunity to improve

Once the information is visible, teams can start identifying opportunities. That might be a dish with a comparatively high carbon impact. It could be an expensive ingredient that is significantly affecting both recipe cost and environmental performance.

A recipe may be delivering a lower margin than expected. A portion may need reviewing. Or an ingredient could potentially be substituted for an alternative.
The important point is that teams can identify specific areas for investigation rather than making broad changes across an entire menu.

The data provides a starting point for asking what can change to improve margins.

#5. Explore potential changes

Identifying an opportunity doesn’t automatically mean changing or removing a dish. Instead, chefs can explore factors in the recipe that could potentially improve its overall performance. For example:

• Could an ingredient be substituted?
• Could the specification change?
• Could the quantity be adjusted?
• Could the portion be reviewed?
• Could the recipe itself be reformulated?

This allows sustainability to become part of normal recipe development rather than a separate exercise.

Quality, availability, guest expectations and operational practicality remain important considerations. The objective isn’t simply to find the lowest-carbon option. It is to identify changes that make sense for the dish and the business.

#6. Understand the impact before making a decision

The next step is understanding what a proposed change means for the recipe. Changing an ingredient or quantity may have consequences beyond environmental impact.
It could affect food cost, margin, portion cost, allergens, nutrition or the practical preparation of the dish. Having connected recipe information allows teams to consider these implications together.

Rather than asking whether this will reduce carbon emissions, teams can consider the impact on cost, the dish’s commercial performance, its overall environmental impact and whether the change still works for the guest. This is an important distinction.

Sustainable decision-making isn’t about optimising one measure at the expense of everything else. It is about having enough information to find the most appropriate balance.

#7. Put successful changes into practice

Once a change has been evaluated and agreed, it needs to become part of the operation. For an individual hotel, that could mean updating a recipe or introducing the change across several menus or outlets.

For larger hotel groups, the opportunity can be greater. A successful recipe change identified at one property could potentially be introduced across other appropriate locations, allowing relatively small improvements to become more significant when applied at scale.

Centralised recipe management also helps teams maintain consistency as changes are introduced. Instead of sustainability initiatives remaining isolated examples of best practice, successful changes can become part of the way the wider business operates.

#8. Measure progress and communicate it

The final part of the process is understanding whether those changes are delivering the intended result.

Because carbon insight is connected to the recipe data being used within the operation, hotels can build a more consistent picture of food-related environmental performance. This can help businesses understand the effect of changes to recipes, ingredients and menus over time.

For hotel groups working towards wider ESG, carbon reduction or corporate sustainability objectives, this provides a stronger foundation for measuring and communicating progress.

It can also support guest-facing communication. Where hotels choose to communicate environmental information through menus or other customer touchpoints, recipe-level carbon data can provide a more credible basis for those messages than broad sustainability claims.

Turning sustainability data into operational action

The value of sustainability data doesn’t come simply from measuring environmental impact. It comes from what teams can do with that information.

The Kitchen CUT and Klimato integration offers a practical process that begins with building the recipe and understanding its carbon impact. It then consolidates commercial and environmental information, allowing for the identification of opportunities and exploration of potential changes. After understanding the impact, successful modifications can be implemented and their progress measured effectively.

Kitchen CUT provides the operational recipe and commercial data, while Klimato adds carbon intelligence. Together, they help shift sustainability from a separate reporting exercise to an integral part of everyday food and beverage decision-making.

For chefs, that means having environmental information available in the context of the recipes they already manage. For F&B and commercial teams, it means being able to consider sustainability alongside cost and operational performance. And for hotel groups, it creates the opportunity to identify successful changes, apply them more widely and build a more consistent approach to food-related sustainability across the estate.

Make sustainability actionable

Sustainability targets are important, but achieving them ultimately depends on the decisions teams make every day.

Connected recipe, commercial and carbon data can help hotels move from measuring environmental impact to identifying where practical changes can be made.

Download The Profitable Sustainability Guide for Hotels to discover more practical ways to reduce environmental impact while supporting stronger food and beverage performance.

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