By Jamie Ford
Quite rightly ‘Green Issues’ are increasingly on the forefront of people’s minds. Questions arise such as:
How can we be more environmentally friendly?
How can we make sure our lives and business’ are sustainable?
Has my chicken burger been organically farmed?
Sometimes it’s difficult to know where to start. So I took it upon myself to compile a list of tips that would help restaurants who were wanting to get started down the green route.
First of all here’s what I’d suggest for the Front of House:
1. Check to see if any of your list includes any ethical wines including organic, biodynamic and Fairtrade and make a point of highlighting them
2. Look into making sure all your tea, coffee and sugar is Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance certified
3. Why not replace your bottled mineral water with a filtered tap water system (or only serve tap water)?
4. Sign up to the Fair Tips Charter and display your service charge policy
Behind the scenes:
5. Move to paperless invoicing. Most suppliers will be more than happy to e-mail invoices rather than post them out
6. Carry out an energy audit and commit to reducing energy use by 10% http://www.thesra.org/
In the kitchen:
7. Change menus at least quarterly to reflect food that is in season http://www.eatseasonably.co.uk/what-to-eat-now/calendar/
8. Use only fish from the Marine Conservation Society’s ‘Fish to Eat’ list
9. Ensure 100% of eggs and milk are free range or RSPCA freedom food certified http://www.ciwf.org.uk/
10. Separate food waste for composting or anaerobic digestion http://www.thesra.org/
In following these tips you can ensure a much ‘greener’ restaurant experience for all involved. For more advice check out the Sustainable Restaurant Association website.
Tags: environment, Green, Restaurant, sustainability, vivid
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