Melco embraces Artificial Intelligence to lead the charge against food waste in Macau

MACAU, Dec. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Melco Resorts & Entertainment, a global leader in premium integrated resorts, announces 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.”

About Melco Resorts & Entertainment Limited

The Company, with its American depositary shares listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market (NASDAQ: MLCO), is a developer, owner and operator of integrated resort facilities in Asia and Europe. The Company currently operates Altira Macau (www.altiramacau.com), an integrated resort hotel located at Taipa, Macau and City of Dreams (www.cityofdreamsmacau.com), an integrated urban resort located in Cotai, Macau. Its business also includes the Mocha Clubs (www.mochaclubs.com), which comprise the largest non-casino based operations of electronic gaming machines in Macau. The Company also majority owns and operates Studio City (www.studiocity-macau.com), a cinematically-themed integrated resort in Cotai, Macau. In the Philippines, a Philippine subsidiary of the Company currently operates and manages City of Dreams Manila (www.cityofdreamsmanila.com), an integrated resort in the Entertainment City complex in Manila. In Europe, the Company is currently developing City of Dreams Mediterranean (www.cityofdreamsmed.com.cy) in the Republic of Cyprus, which is expected to be the largest and premier integrated destination resort in Europe. The Company is currently operating a temporary casino, the first authorized casino in the Republic of Cyprus, and is licensed to operate four satellite casinos (“Cyprus Casinos”). Upon the opening of City of Dreams Mediterranean, the Company will continue to operate the satellite casinos while operation of the temporary casino will cease. For more information about the Company, please visit www.melco-resorts.com.

The Company is strongly supported by its single largest shareholder, Melco International Development Limited, a company listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited and is substantially owned and led by Mr. Lawrence Ho, who is the Chairman, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

About Winnow

Winnow develops cutting-edge digital tools to help chefs run more profitable, sustainable kitchens. Launched in a single staff restaurant in 2013, Winnow is trusted today by thousands of chefs in over 40 countries, where kitchens’ food waste is consistently cut in half. Together Winnow and its partners are saving over 36 million meals a year from the bin: the equivalent of $40 million in food cost savings for its clients. For more info: www.winnowsolutions.com

For media enquiries, please contact:
Chimmy Leung
Executive Director, Corporate Communications
Tel: +852 3151 3765
Email: chimmyleung@melco-resorts.com

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1} CO2e calculated as 4.3kg CO2e to 1kg food waste saved (source blend of FAO and WRAP data)

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b49a07c6-aef2-4afb-9fbd-6e139763aa9b