The World Sustainability Organization (WSO) will require 30% plant-based menus for the 500-plus restaurants, cafés, caterers and hotels operating under its Friend of the Earth and Friend of the Sea certifications.

Updated standards apply to both the WSO's Sustainable Restaurants and Sustainable Tourism Facilities schemes. Under the new rules, plant-based dishes must make up at least 30% of menu items and be "featured and promoted" rather than buried as a token option.

The threshold arrives two months after the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) published its first food-and-beverage benchmark, which also requires hotels to hit 30% plant-based or "predominantly" plant-based offerings. The GSTC, founded in 2007 with backing from the UN Environment Programme and UN Tourism, currently accredits more than 2,000 hotels worldwide.

What does the new WSO standard actually require?

Operators seeking or retaining certification must clear four new hurdles:

• Plant-based items must reach 30% of the menu and be actively promoted on it.
• Animal proteins must come from producers that prohibit cages, crates and ongoing tethering. The standard states: "Animals must be slaughtered in a humane method that produces instant insensibility followed by death while insensate."
• Operators must manage inputs and outputs to lower food loss and eliminate landfill waste.
• Within 12 months of certification, operators must establish a partnership with an NGO to deliver unused food to people in need.

For hotels, resorts and tourism facilities, the 30% menu threshold must be met within 12 months of certification, with the same animal-welfare rules on the same timeline. Tourism operators face an additional escalation clause: they must set and meet specific targets to reduce the proportion of food waste by at least 10% in each of the next three years.

How does this reshape operator economics?

The compliance pressure lands alongside a mounting carbon case. Food sourcing drives 62% of a hotel's food-related emissions, while animal-derived ingredients alone account for 70% of those food-sourcing emissions, per the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. A typical hotel meal produces three times the emissions of a home-cooked equivalent. Scope 3 emissions make up more than 90% of a hotel's carbon footprint.

Foodservice accounts for 28% of the 1.05 billion tonnes of food wasted globally each year, second only to households. With menu engineering now tied to certification status, operators will need to rework plate cost, supplier contracts and waste tracking simultaneously.

Which chains have already committed?

Several major operators have set parallel targets:

• Accor, parent of Novotel, Raffles, Pullman and Ibis, has pledged to make 50% of its menu meatless globally by 2030.
• IHG Hotels & Resorts has committed to 30% plant-based menus in the Philippines across Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and other brands.
• At least a dozen leading hotels in China have vowed to expand plant-based protein share.
• The World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, whose membership includes the top 11 hotel chains, partnered last year with US non-profit Vegan Hospitality to expand plant-based dining and hit its 30% industry emissions reduction goal by 2030.

What does the standard say about accountability?

Ribbin Nichapa, corporate engagement manager at the Lever Foundation, which helped WSO set the updated rules, framed the move as necessary infrastructure for credible sustainability claims.

"Pairing meaningful animal welfare requirements with a strong plant-based foods benchmark is exactly the kind of standard needed for true sustainability," Nichapa said. "The updated policies from Friend of the Earth and Friend of the Sea set a clear, credible, and common-sense standard that gives certified restaurants, hotels and food service companies something meaningful to point to with their customers."

Meeting every criterion is mandatory for certification and ongoing renewal. Operators that fall short lose access to a label already used by 500-plus foodservice businesses globally.

The 30% benchmark is becoming a market floor rather than a stretch goal: with both WSO and GSTC pushing the same threshold within months of each other, operators building 2027 sourcing budgets and menu cycles will need to decide whether to engineer plant-based into the core menu or operate outside these certification ecosystems.