The World Economic Forum at Davos hosts approximately 3,000 delegates plus another 1,500-2,000 supporting staff, journalists, and security personnel each January. The forum runs for 4-5 days, with attendees consuming approximately 12,000-15,000 meals plus countless coffees, snacks, and bilateral-meeting refreshments. For an event focused heavily on global sustainability discussions, the foodservice operation faces an interesting test: practice the sustainability the panels discuss.
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Over the past several years, the WEF has implemented a progressive compostable foodservice program across most of its venues. The program isn’t perfect — the global delegates expect high-end service — but it represents one of the more comprehensive sustainability-focused foodservice operations at a major political event. Here’s how it works and what the gaps are.
The venue landscape
Davos isn’t a single venue. The forum spreads across approximately 15-20 venues in the small Swiss alpine town:
- The Congress Centre — the main venue, hosting the major panel discussions and most plenary sessions. Has multiple food service points and a main dining area for delegates.
- Hotel ballrooms and meeting rooms — used for breakout sessions, business meetings, and dinners. The Steigenberger, Belvédère, Hotel Schweizerhof, and others all host WEF programming.
- The Promenade — the main street through Davos, lined with brand pavilions and pop-up venues. Many companies host their own catered events here.
- Private chalets — used for delegate dinners and small private gatherings hosted by various organizations and governments.
The compostable program covers approximately 80-90% of WEF’s officially-organized foodservice, with the remaining 10-20% being brand-sponsored events that operate under their own catering arrangements.
What’s served
Davos foodservice doesn’t look like typical conference foodservice. The catering is high-end:
Breakfast: Buffets featuring Swiss specialties — Bircher müesli, fresh pastries, Swiss cheeses, cured meats. Coffee and tea service. Hot dishes including eggs prepared to order.
Lunch: Plated lunches at the Congress Centre dining area; lighter walking food at brand pavilions. Hot soups, sandwiches, salads, Swiss specialty dishes.
Dinner: Multi-course plated dinners at hotel banquet rooms or chalets. Wine pairings. Often themed around a specific country’s cuisine or a panel topic.
Coffee breaks: Pastries, fruit, beverages every 90-120 minutes throughout the day.
Receptions: Cocktail-style food at events throughout the week — chef stations, passed appetizers, themed buffets.
For the high-end plated dinners, the foodservice uses ceramic plates, glass stemware, and proper silverware. Compostable disposables don’t apply here.
For the buffet, walking food, coffee service, and reception components, the compostable program is comprehensive.
What compostables are used
Hot beverage cups: Vegware PLA-lined paper cups for coffee, tea, hot chocolate. Standard 8oz, 12oz, 16oz sizes with matching CPLA lids.
Cold beverage cups: Clear PLA cups for water, juice, and cold drinks. Reusable glass for wine and most cocktails.
Plates and bowls for buffets: Bagasse plates and bowls in various sizes. Used for hot food items at buffet stations.
Cutlery for walking food: CPLA forks and spoons. Knives where needed.
Sandwich and wrap papers: Compostable greaseproof paper for handheld items.
Napkins: Recycled-content paper napkins, unbleached.
Take-out containers: For attendees grabbing food to take to a meeting, compostable clamshells or paper boxes.
The compostable suppliers vary by venue — Vegware for the Congress Centre, local Swiss suppliers like Duni AB for some hotel venues, and a mix of brands at brand pavilions.
What’s diverted
The WEF’s sustainability reporting indicates that approximately 75-80% of foodservice waste at the official Congress Centre and primary venues is diverted to commercial composting. The local Swiss compost hauler — Bürgergemeinde Davos — processes the organic waste at a facility in the canton.
The diversion breakdown roughly:
- 70-75% compostable foodware + food waste → commercial composting
- 10-15% recyclable beverage containers (glass bottles, aluminum cans) → recycling
- 5-10% landfill (items that can’t be sorted, contaminated items, non-compostable disposables from brand pavilions)
- 5-10% reusable items (china plates, glass stemware, metal silverware that goes back to hotel inventory)
For comparison, typical conference foodservice diverts perhaps 20-30% of waste. The Davos program approximately triples the diversion rate.
What’s working
The program demonstrates several things:
High-volume compostable supply is feasible. Davos consumes large volumes of disposables in a short window — many tons across the forum week. The Swiss compostable supply chain successfully delivers and the local composting infrastructure handles the processing.
High-end events can use compostables without compromising service quality. The plated dinners use real china; the buffet stations use compostable bagasse. Attendees mostly don’t notice or care; the experience is high-quality regardless.
Bin signage and education works at international events. Davos attracts delegates from 100+ countries, many of whom don’t speak local Swiss German. The bin signage uses universal pictograms rather than text, making sorting accessible across language barriers.
The local composting infrastructure can be a strategic asset. Davos has invested in its own composting infrastructure partly because of the WEF business — the event generates enough demand to support local processing capacity that’s then available year-round for the community.
What isn’t working
The program has limits:
Brand pavilions vary. The 20+ brand pavilions along the Promenade operate independently. Some have adopted compostable programs; others haven’t. The forum can encourage but not require this; some brands continue with conventional disposables for their own pavilion operations.
International delegates’ habits. Many delegates from countries with less mature waste sorting habits don’t always sort correctly. Cross-contamination of bins is a recurring issue. The forum has added more ambassadors but the problem persists.
Some specific items haven’t transitioned. Plastic-coated to-go containers for certain hot items continue at some venues because compostable alternatives haven’t been operationally proven for the specific use case. Examples include items requiring extended hot-hold times.
Brand-sponsored gifts and giveaways. Davos brand pavilions frequently give away branded items (water bottles, USB drives, branded notebooks). These aren’t generally compostable and don’t fit the compost program. They show up in the waste stream.
Single-use plastics in security and operations. Security personnel, transportation staff, and operations support often use disposable items not under the foodservice program’s control. These items show up in mixed waste streams.
How attendees experience it
For delegates and journalists, the compostable program is largely invisible. The cups feel like regular cups; the plates feel like regular plates; the food tastes the same. The bin signage is the most visible difference.
Some delegates do notice and comment positively. The forum’s sustainability program is part of its public messaging, and the compostable foodservice provides a tangible example.
A small subset of delegates — particularly those from sustainability-focused organizations or environmental ministries — notice the program and ask questions about it. The WEF’s facilities team has prepared briefing materials for these conversations.
The food itself isn’t changed by the compostable program. Davos foodservice continues to be high-end Swiss/European cuisine with international touches. The compostables are the vehicle, not the change in food quality.
The broader implications
The WEF compostable program is interesting as a case study for two reasons:
It’s at a high-stakes international event. If the program works at Davos — where attendees are extremely visible, foodservice is high-end, and the volume is significant — it suggests the approach scales to other major international events. UN General Assembly, G7/G20 summits, major business conferences, and similar events could implement similar programs.
It’s voluntary, not mandated. Swiss law doesn’t require Davos to use compostable disposables; the WEF chose to do so as part of its sustainability commitment. This is meaningful because voluntary programs can move faster and adapt more flexibly than mandate-driven programs.
For other event organizers considering similar programs, the Davos experience suggests:
- Comprehensive compostable programs are operationally feasible at scale
- 75-80% diversion rates are achievable with serious implementation
- Local composting infrastructure is the critical enabling factor
- Brand pavilions and partner events require separate negotiation
- Cross-cultural attendee sorting needs ambassador staffing
- Some items (specialty hot containers, brand giveaways) can’t be fully addressed
For compostable food containers and other foodservice items used at international events, the Davos program suggests that even premium-positioned events can adopt compostable disposables without compromising the service quality attendees expect.
What comes next
The WEF has set increasing sustainability targets for upcoming forums. The current sustainability roadmap calls for:
- Maintaining 75%+ diversion through 2026
- Targeting 85%+ diversion by 2028
- Pilot programs for reusable cup systems at coffee stations
- Pilot programs for bulk water and beverage service to reduce single-use cup volume
- Expanded brand pavilion participation through new sponsorship agreements
The forum’s sustainability committee has been clear that the compostable program is one element of a broader strategy, not a destination. The longer-term goal is reducing disposable volume overall, with compostables filling the gap where reusables aren’t feasible.
What the dinner actually looks like
For an attendee at a typical Davos lunch buffet, the experience is: walk to the buffet line, take a bagasse plate, serve yourself from steam tables of Swiss specialty dishes (rösti, schnitzel, soups), grab compostable cutlery, sit down to eat, then walk to a sorting station with clear signage for compost / recycling / landfill.
The bagasse plate feels slightly different from china — a bit lighter, slightly more flexible, with a natural fiber appearance rather than glossy ceramic. The cutlery is CPLA, similar in feel to plastic but slightly more robust. The cup of coffee comes in a paper cup with a CPLA lid.
The whole experience is unremarkable. That’s the point. A foodservice operation that handles 3,000+ daily meals with comprehensive compostable disposables can be invisible to attendees while delivering significant environmental benefit behind the scenes.
The Davos dinner isn’t dramatic. It’s just food, served on materials that will compost in 8-12 weeks rather than persist in landfills for decades. That mundane outcome — high-end foodservice with high-end disposables that happen to be compostable — is the operational achievement.
For B2B sourcing, see our compostable supplies catalog or compostable bags catalog.
Background on the underlying standards: ASTM D6400 defines the U.S. industrial-compost performance bar, EN 13432 harmonises the EU equivalent, and the FTC Green Guides govern how “compostable” can be marketed on packaging in the United States.