The Sustainable Restaurant Association (The SRA) was founded in 2008 by Simon Heppner, Giles Gibbons, Mark Sainsbury and Henry Dimbleby, with a vision of creating a clear intersection between the sustainable food movement and the hospitality industry. With a group of 50 founding restaurants, The SRA set out to create a robust framework for what made a restaurant ‘good’, clearly promote best practice across the industry and inspire healthy competition to drive progressive action. 

Initially known as the Food Made Good Rating, the Food Made Good Sustainability Standard was launched in 2010. Since then, it has been used to assess and certify the sustainability of more than 15,000 sites globally. What started as a conversation between a few restaurants in London quickly grew to reach all corners of foodservice – from high end to high street, from street food staples to workplace and university canteens.  

Based on this Standard, The SRA acts as sustainability partner and judge for many of the best-known industry awards, including The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the San Pellegrino Young Chef Awards and the UK’s National Restaurant Awards.  

The Sustainable Restaurant Association continues to evolve, grow and expand its scope; today, the offering also includes bespoke consultancy projects, partnership programmes with businesses that have the power to support our mission, and a busy calendar of education and networking sessions. 

In 2023, The Sustainable Restaurant Association launched a new and improved version of the Food Made Good Standard. With updates including a globally accessible and globally applicable framework and question set, as well as a brand-new user-friendly online platform, the rating reflects the needs and abilities of the global hospitality sector and the industry’s current sustainability footprint. 

History

The concept of an association to promote sustainability in the restaurant sector originated at the London-based consultancy, Good Business, and was developed by Simon Heppner and Giles Gibbons during 2008. The Garfield Weston Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Mark Leonard Trust provided funding and in 2009 the association launched with founder members Carluccios, Feng Sushi and Wahaca.

The organisation has continued to evolve and develop each year since then, increasing the number of restaurants it is working with from 52 at launch to over 12,000 in 2019. In 2012, Raymond Blanc became president of the association.^[1]

Food Made Good Standard

A sustainability accreditation designed specifically for hospitality businesses, the Food Made Good Standard assesses behaviour, measures action, celebrates progress and provides a roadmap towards further improvement.

The Standard is awarded to restaurants and F&B businesses that meet a set of criteria focused on sourcing, society and environment. Through this accreditation, our aim is to encourage and recognise excellence in sustainability practices across the global foodservice industry.

Food Made Good is a 360-degree holistic assessment of your whole operations. Built on a ten-point framework, Food Made Good answers the question “What does good look like for a foodservice business?” by evaluating impact across the three pillars of Sourcing, Society and Environment.

Accreditation can benefit your business in several ways:

Action plan: Using the framework enables you to manage and prioritise your actions. The report provided at the end gives your business a ready-made action plan to embed positive changes, strengthen your supply chains, motivate staff, attract attention and build a thriving, future-fit business in the process.

Recognition: Your business is provided with an independent, third-party accreditation and recognition of your actions on the sustainability issues that matter most.

Competitive advantage: With more consumers choosing to dine at sustainable restaurants and demanding eco-friendly practices, accreditation can help your business stand out from the crowd.

Cost savings: Sustainable practices can help your business reduce costs through initiatives such as energy and water efficiency and by reducing food waste.

Enhanced reputation: Accreditation shows that your business is committed to environmental and social responsibility, which can enhance your reputation with customers, investors, and other stakeholders.

Expert guidance: The SRA offers guidance on sustainable practices, providing your business with expertise that can help you achieve your goals.

Access to a network: Achieving the Standard makes you part of a global movement for change. As part of the Food Made Good community you can share, learn and collaborate with a network of like-minded professionals committed to creating a positive future.

Positive impact: By implementing sustainable practices, your business can have a positive impact on the environment and local communities, helping to create a more sustainable food system.

Campaigns

In 2010 the SRA carried out research into food-waste in different types of restaurants, aiming to understand the scope of the issue and clarify what constituted plate-waste, spoilage and prep waste.^[2] The results indicated that on average restaurants were producing half a kilo of waste per diner and that 65% was prep waste, 30% plate waste and only 5% spoilage.^[2] The publication of the results shed light on the issue for the first time, appearing in WRAP's report Understanding out of home consumer food waste,^[3] and prompted the SRA to develop the Too Good To Waste campaign, which encouraged diners to ask and restaurants to offer doggy boxes to take leftovers home.^[2]

References

External links

• SRA Awards