Tourism and food are two sectors that have major impact on the environment, including the amount of global greenhouse gases (GHGs) they emit. The potential of the tourism sector to mitigate greenhouse gases through adaptation strategies of food supply and consumption at breakfast buffets in hotels is the major field of investigation in the current study.   This thesis contributes an empirical analysis that uses knowledge from fieldwork in a touristic area in Sweden. The empirical work of this study consists of two steps. First, measuring the (un)sustainability of breakfast buffets in hotels, using the FOODSCALE method, determining potential pathways toward a less greenhouse gas emission intensive food supply and second, to distinguish tourist interest to adopt toward a more climate friendly diet away from home. As food consumption patterns of tourists are considered as critical contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, changes toward a more environmental friendly diet are urgently needed helping substantially in mitigating emissions of GHGs. However, this field has been sparsely explored which made it an interesting and important area for current research in tourism studies.  The results and analysis showed that sustainable food consumption patterns of tourists can be encouraged through breakfast buffets. However, this is depending on a couple of determinants which have to be applied and fulfilled by breakfast buffets in hotels. Tourists interest to adapt toward a more climate friendly diet while being on holidays is depending on their eating habits and their interest in environmental sustainability issues. With the help of the 3 identified guest groups it can be determined that the majority of tourists' is willing to give up carbon-intensive eating habits and change their behavior when being on holidays. Hotels can act as role models, promoting more sustainable behaviour through sustainable food offers at breakfast buffets. The idea of hotels acting as role models focuses on encouraging beneficial decision-making, such as adopting food consumption patterns toward a carbon-neutral diet.

Food waste is a major environmental issue. It takes electricity, water, and energy to produce food, to store it, to refrigerate it, to transport it and to prepare it. If for some reason the food is then not consumed, it goes to landfill, where it produces greenhouse gases. The fact that food waste is a significant contributor to the tourism industry’s negative impact on the environment has not received as much attention from tourism academics as one could expect, given the magnitude of the problem in tourism, neither has it been given much attention on how to handle it. This study therefore looks into ways to alter consumer food waste as well as identifying the opportunities of food service strategies that allow reducing food waste, while at the same time maintaining the quality of the service at a hotel in Kalmar. The research used social practice theory (SPT) and the concept of service quality as a theoretical framework to guide the collection as well as the analysis. The empirical work of this study consists of two phases, where firstly an exploratory phase was conducted to measure food waste from the breakfast buffet and to conduct a customer survey to point out possible initiatives to reduce food waste. The responses and results were then further analyzed to find patterns and themes which formed the explanatory phase, focusing on assessing the interest of hotel management to adopt solutions reducing food wasted from the breakfast service. The results and analysis proved that most participants, whether consumers or providers, already have a general idea of what sustainable food consumption means as well as engaging in sustainable practices and behaviors. The analysis of the results through the framework of SPT revealed that the factors that motivate participants to engage in sustainable behaviors resonate more to sustainable consumption rather than reducing the consumption, which can be a reason for the vast amount of food waste. However, the results revealed that though there is a growing movement towards reducing food waste as well as straightforward strategies that can be implemented to reduce food waste, there is still a need to try and change the fundamental behaviors to become more sustainable in that matter.