Digital menus: your contribution and savings with the environment

In the health emergency, more than 4 million restaurants in Latin America were digitized, which generated a positive impact on the environment. This is confirmed by the figures: in 2021, by replacing paper with the digital menu, 416 million physical menus were no longer printed, saving approximately 391,529 trees from disappearing and more than 3,328 million leaves were saved, which represents the oxygen demand of 1,174,588 people, which is equivalent to 32 times the capacity of the El Campin stadiumaccording to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

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To validate and ground these numbers in the local context, Cluvi, a Colombian startup that has digitized more than 3,000 gastronomic businesses in 5 Latam countries, including Colombia, produced a report that reveals that in the last 18 months in the country they stopped printing close to 78,000 physical menus, a measure that prevented the felling of 441 trees and saved more than 4 million 419 thousand sheets of paper, a shocking fact if you take into account that only one tree is needed to provide quality air to 3 people.

According to Fabián Carrillo, CEO of the company and author of the report, the report was made taking into account the analysis of data from 3,000 food establishments as a starting point.

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“We apply the following formula to obtain the results: 1 physical menu of a restaurant has an average of 4 sheets (2 pages) and for each business at least one letter is handled, a document that is renewed at least once every year due to different changes related to the prices and the offer of dishes”he explained.

RESTAURANTS SAVED 37 MILLION AND 440 THOUSAND LITERS OF WATER

The digitization of physical menus in gastronomic shops not only prevented a considerable number of trees from being cut down; Likewise, it generated a positive impact in terms of spending and consumption of this vital liquid.

In this regard, the report analyzed that for each sheet of paper there is a waste of 10 liters of water, which allows us to point out that the 3,000 restaurants that for 18 months decided not to print more physical menus saved 37 million 440 thousand liters of this unused resource. renewable. A figure not less if one takes into account that every year the paper industry in the world spends 1,150 billion liters of this vital resource on its production.

“To understand the impact of this saving, it is enough to know that a person uses for their most basic needs, according to the WHO, 100 liters of water a day, that is, 10 sheets of paper. Very revealing numbers that confirm that if restaurants continue betting on the digitization of their physical menus, they can contribute to the care of one of the most vital non-renewable resources for the survival of man”Carrillo said.

CO2 EMISSIONS REDUCED BY MORE THAN 400,000 KG

In relation to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to the planet and taking into account that for each kilogram of recycled paper, 1.8 kilograms (kg) of this harmful gas for health are generated, the report revealed that the 3,000 businesses studied in the report By stopping printing physical letters, they reduced their Co2 emissions by up to 424,224 kg during 2021, saving more than 235,680 kg of paper.