Melco Resorts & Entertainment Embraces AI to Reduce Food Waste in Macau
Melco Resorts & Entertainment announced that it will be rolling out Winnow Vision, an Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)-powered product to tackle food waste across its properties. Driven by Melco’s strong focus around environmental sustainability, an initial six-month trial has shown excellent results in the Company’s flagship property, City of Dreams Macau, with:
- Food waste in the employee dining area reduced by 67%
- 3,915kg food waste saved, equivalent to almost 17 tonnes CO2e1
Melco now plans to roll out Winnow Vision into its own-operated buffet restaurants, adopting the A.I. system as part of the Company’s broader sustainability strategy ‘Above & Beyond’. Using a camera, a set of smart scales and the same type of machine learning technology found in autonomous vehicles, Winnow Vision learns to recognize various foods being discarded and calculates the financial and environmental impact of such food waste for commercial kitchens. Chefs can then adjust their food purchasing decisions accordingly, reducing spending and tackling a fundamental problem of overproduction.
Denise Chen, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer of Melco Resorts & Entertainment, said, “Melco is dedicated to tackling one of the industry’s biggest challenges, food waste, while inspiring others to follow suit. We are excited about continuing our collaboration with Winnow across our resorts to lead the charge against food waste in Macau. The A.I. system initiative allows us to maximize operational efficiency and data accuracy across both front- and heart of-house food outlets, with the ability to significantly reduce food waste as we work towards our goal of achieving zero waste and contributing to circular economic leadership in Asia by the year 2030.”
The F&B team at City of Dreams identified dishes such as noodles, potatoes and rice served to employees as key opportunities to reduce waste. Waste levels steadily reduced over the six-month period as the team adjusted production volumes using Winnow’s analytics. Melco is set to roll out the program to customer facing dining areas, as well as its operations in City of Dreams Manila in the Philippines.
Melco is also planning to work with Winnow to measure plate waste in its employee dining areas. The project aims to increase internal awareness on food and plate waste, which will contribute to the Company’s existing Clean Plate Challenge efforts since 2019.
Marc Zornes, Winnow CEO and Co-founder says, “We’re delighted with the results the team at City of Dreams have seen using Winnow Vision, with food waste cut by over 65% in just six months. This is testament to Melco’s commitment to sustainability and innovation, and we look forward to replicating these early successes across the group.”