Spotted: The UK’s hospitality sector is responsible for around 15 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. One company tackling this issue is Skoot, a multi-faceted platform with a variety of solutions that help businesses, communities, and individuals cut their carbon footprintsm by enabling them to identify, offset, and avoid carbon emissions. The company’s Eco-Contribution tool focuses on restaurants and hospitality businesses.

With Skoot, businesses can first calculate their own net emissions. Then, the Eco-Contribution solution allows restaurants and venues to counteract the emissions generated from every meal or bill – taking into account food miles and other contributors – by planting trees. The company estimates that each tree can remove 6 kilogrammes of CO2 per diner and, over the course of its lifetime, could trap up to 1 tonne of CO2. 

Not only does Skoot’s hospitality tool help to reduce an establishment’s overall carbon footprint, at no additional cost to the business, but it also empowers customers to be greener when they’re eating out. Upon receiving a bill, diners can choose to pay the optional Eco-Contribution – as set by the restaurant – and offset emissions from the meal. Depending on the restaurant’s preference, this Eco-Contribution can either be applied per table or per person.

The tool can be easily integrated across any existing till system, and to make it even easier to implement, Oracle Simphony and Micros users are able to download the Eco-Contribution app directly from the Oracle marketplace onto their POS (point of sale) system and integrate the solution remotely. 

Skoot has now planted over 800,000 trees, and countered over 4,000 tonnes of CO2. The company’s aim is to expand the environmental support it offers, broaden its collection of sustainability projects, and grow operations to new countries – having already confirmed its first clients in America and South Africa. 

Springwise has also spotted other innovations in the archive that help offset carbon footprints, like one platform that helps employees make tangible company-wide eco-friendly changes or another that makes it easier to track and manage carbon offsets.

Written By: Archie Cox