Supporting smart swaps for small businesses
The Climate Coalition
We are the UK's largest group of people dedicated to action against climate change.
This year’s Great Big Green Week, taking place between 8th and 16th June, will celebrate the positive swaps that people, communities and businesses are making to help create a safer, greener future.?
In this article, learn more about how our Great Big Green Week partner, The Sustainable Restaurant Association (The SRA), is supporting its network to swap to more sustainable practices.?
About the Sustainable Restaurant Association
The Sustainable Restaurant Association (The SRA) is on a mission to create positive change through its accreditation standard (the Food Made Good Standard), which is designed to encourage, support and recognise sustainability practices across the food and drink industry.??
Most hospitality professionals are aware that business operations must change in order to tackle climate change and social injustice in the food system, but many lack the tools to do so. The SRA is committed to developing practical resources to help businesses build a more sustainable future, with their two new guides featured below.?
Supporting smart swaps for small businesses
In partnership with Belu, The SRA has recently launched its Small Business Guide to Sustainability, featuring practical steps, case studies and resources to support smaller businesses on their sustainability journey, whatever their starting point.?
For small restaurants, cafés, bars, hotels and other businesses, the guide covers everything from assessing their starting point and how to take action on sustainability right through to communicating their hard work to staff and customers and building a collaborative network of like-minded businesses.?
“Most of what we need can be found at our fingertips, without having to break fragile systems to get hold of them. It is all about choosing the right suppliers, maintaining standards, changing bad habits and getting into new ones that are better for people and planet. It's daunting at first, but take small steps and you’ll learn a lot about your business... even a small step towards sustainability is a fantastic thing!”? – Piers Milburn, Owner of Pythouse Kitchen Garden
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Making the swap to renewable energy solutions
In January this year, The SRA launched ‘Renewable Energy Solutions: A Toolkit for the UK Food & Drink Sector’, designed to help hospitality businesses swap fossil fuels for renewable energy.
The guide has a range of examples and insights from chefs and restaurant operators who have already made the leap to renewables and were generous enough to share what they learned along the way.?
At Hawksmoor, the team carefully checks their energy use patterns by using smart metres to measure usage on an appliance level, allowing them to refine and improve their procedures as they go.?
“The switch to electric ovens has allowed us to improve how we operate in kitchens, giving us pinpoint control of cooking temperatures for both slow cooking and fast reheating. It's much easier to keep clean, safer to work on and without the excess heat it provides us with a much more comfortable work environment for our chefs. This has also allowed us to decrease our extraction power providing further reduction in energy use and reduced excess kitchen noise.” – Phillip Branch, Group Head Chef at Hawksmoor
Meanwhile, Fooditude has left almost no stone unturned.
“We’re exploring retrofitting, upgrading our power supply and installing a battery and solar panels to generate and store our own electricity on-site. In future and with a bidirectional EV charger, we could even use surplus energy from our vehicles.”? – Anouk Dijkman, Sustainability Manager at Fooditude
For more information on The SRA, sign up to the newsletter and follow them on LinkedIn or Instagram.
Does your organisation have a story to tell this Great Big Green Week? Find out how you can get involved at greatbiggreenweek.com/get-involved/partners.?