The survey, which was commissioned by Deliverect and conducted by Censuswide, polled 7,000 global consumers (over 1,000 Australian consumers) about how eco-friendly takeaway and delivery options impact their ordering decisions.

Australian consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable options
While 65% of survey respondents said they find healthy, sustainable eating to be more expensive, almost one third (30%) are willing to pay more for takeaways in restaurants that have visible sustainability practices. Another 38% would even consider changing what they order from the menu to be more sustainable. Some restaurants are already catching on: in fact, 40% of survey respondents already think there are ample sustainable and affordable options in food delivery/takeaways.

Transparency in sustainability processes
Almost half (46%) of respondents would like restaurants to better share how they are working to make takeaways/deliveries more sustainable. Fifty-six percent also don’t think restaurants are very transparent about their sustainability practices. Sixty-two percent feel it’s important that restaurants are open about their practices to limit food waste.

Avoid excessive food waste
The UN Environment Programme’s Food Waste Index reports more than 900 million tons of food is thrown away each year—and it’s on consumer radars. The survey revealed that while 76% of consumers usually keep larger than necessary food portions for another meal (leftover), 40% say seeing large amounts of food waste frustrates them and puts them off from ordering from that restaurant again.

Even more so, 70% said that having accurate portion sizes to avoid food waste is important to them, and 68% feel takeaway restaurants should have precautions in place to avoid unnecessary food waste. Not surprisingly, 40% say seeing large amounts of food waste frustrates them and puts them off from ordering from that restaurant again.

Be conscious of sustainable packaging
With so many packaging options out there, one thing is certain: consumers are on the lookout for restaurants using sustainable materials. It even impacts where they choose to order from, with the study finding:

1. Fifty percent of consumers would prefer to order from restaurants that remove excess packaging from the food delivery
2. Almost half (48%) would also show preference to a restaurant that uses eco-friendly packaging and doesn’t use single-use plastic
3. Fifty-nine percent of consumers believe having sustainable packaging (plant-based/non-plastic/compostable) is important to them

Deliverect co-founder and CEO Zhong Xu shares advice for restaurants: “To stay up on the competition and meet customer needs, consider making sustainable strides like revamping your menu to include locally-sourced ingredients and cutting down your delivery times. Even better, look to modern technology to improve your operational efficiencies and open the door to more time for you to focus on sustainability. Deliverect automates your online order flow (delivery, click and collect and table apps) to give you faster online order flow to the kitchen, better delivery times and faster menu management.”

Outback Steakhouse operating director Mike Palmer adds: "Deliverect has helped us to focus on what is important to us and our customers, how we cook our food and how we sustainably package it. We are receiving the order tickets faster and therefore not making any order mistakes which results in less food wastage. By allowing us to group delivery platforms, we can be much more efficient with deliveries and have seen a 20%-time savings and we’re able to get the food out probably two to three times quicker than we were previously.”