19th February 2010
Sustainable association could provide opportunities for UK catering jobs

There could be new opportunities for catering jobs in the UK with the arrival of a new environmentally conscious group, known as the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA).

The group was founded by some of the UK's best known restaurants, including Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, Carluccio’s, Moro and Benares, and was set up to help restaurants become more sustainable and take action against the impact that their trade is having upon the environment.

The catering industry regularly performs poorly with regard to environmental awareness, mostly as a result of creating three million tonnes of food waste each year, and disposing of 600,000 tonnes of glass bottles.

The SRA hopes to put a stop to this as well as other key areas of improvement, by changing the way that food is sourced, transported and created, and working with restaurants throughout the UK to help them adapt to the changes. Advice will be sought from bodies such as Compassion in World Farming, Envirowise, and the Fairtrade Foundation, which will be passed onto members relating to issues from sourcing ethical fish and meat through to waste management.

Participating SRA members will then have their efforts rewarded with gold, silver or bronze accreditations, following regular audits by assessment company Good Corporation. A survey conducted by Tabletop shows that 70% of respondents were more likely to visit a restaurant if it was actively carrying out sustainable practices and accredited by a reputable body.

Managing Director of Carluccio’s Simon Kossoff, one of the SRA's founding members, said:

“Our customers tell us that the broad issues around sustainability are more and more important", while Benares restaurant’s chef patron, Atul Kochhar, added:

“As a restaurateur and chef, I’ve noticed an increase in the number of diners who are really starting to ask questions about provenance but we also need to educate them on other environmental issues relating to the restaurant industry, including everything from waste to where we source our fish – and the SRA has the ideal tools to help us do this.”

Visit the SRA website at www.thesra.org for more information.