Short menus, local products, no tablecloth: how to choose a restaurant and help save the planet
The doors of good restaurants frequently display stickers from guides such as Michelin or the Good Food Guide. It's much less common to spot anything that proclaims their green credentials. Even venues that take positive steps toward sustainability may be hesitant to report it for fear of boring people.
Therefore, diners who want to do better choice for the planet where and how they eat lacks direction. You have to know how to decipher a restaurant and its menu, spot the warning signs of a progressive operation. What characterizes a greener restaurant and what to order once there? How can we as customers accept this change?
It will seem archaic to those browsing the dishes on TikTok and Instagram, but a restaurant website will, with just a few clicks, provide Useful information easily missed on social media. You might find, for example, that a restaurant uses green energy (Maray in Liverpool) or upholsters its chairs in the pineapple skin leather alternative, Pinatex (Pizza Pilgrim's eco-test site in Selfridges, London).
Some systems exist to audit restaurants in an ethical manner. It may currently only cover 3,000 of the UK's nearly 90,000 restaurants, cafes and takeaways, but the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Food Made Good star ratings are available at foodmadegood.org. Living Wage Foundation accredited hospitality venues (sustainability also includes people, right?), can also be viewed by region at livingwage.org.uk. One of these restaurants, Manchester's Open Kitchen, is, according to its founder, Corin Bell, proof that "you can run a business without killing the planet or mistreating people".
The size of the menu (and the portions) countConsider the style of the restaurant. Basically, the bigger the menu, the more food waste it will generate. Granted...
The doors of good restaurants frequently display stickers from guides such as Michelin or the Good Food Guide. It's much less common to spot anything that proclaims their green credentials. Even venues that take positive steps toward sustainability may be hesitant to report it for fear of boring people.
Therefore, diners who want to do better choice for the planet where and how they eat lacks direction. You have to know how to decipher a restaurant and its menu, spot the warning signs of a progressive operation. What characterizes a greener restaurant and what to order once there? How can we as customers accept this change?
It will seem archaic to those browsing the dishes on TikTok and Instagram, but a restaurant website will, with just a few clicks, provide Useful information easily missed on social media. You might find, for example, that a restaurant uses green energy (Maray in Liverpool) or upholsters its chairs in the pineapple skin leather alternative, Pinatex (Pizza Pilgrim's eco-test site in Selfridges, London).
Some systems exist to audit restaurants in an ethical manner. It may currently only cover 3,000 of the UK's nearly 90,000 restaurants, cafes and takeaways, but the Sustainable Restaurant Association's Food Made Good star ratings are available at foodmadegood.org. Living Wage Foundation accredited hospitality venues (sustainability also includes people, right?), can also be viewed by region at livingwage.org.uk. One of these restaurants, Manchester's Open Kitchen, is, according to its founder, Corin Bell, proof that "you can run a business without killing the planet or mistreating people".
The size of the menu (and the portions) countConsider the style of the restaurant. Basically, the bigger the menu, the more food waste it will generate. Granted...
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