Sustainable Restaurant Association
| Not for profit; Trade association | |
| Industry | Hospitality & Food Service |
| Founded | 2009 |
|
Key people
|
Raymond Blanc OBE, President Prue Leith, Vice President Andrew Stephen, Chief Executive |
| Website | thesra |
Raymond Blanc OBE, President Prue Leith, Vice President
The Sustainable Restaurant Association is a not-for-profit, membership organisation, based in the United Kingdom, which aids food-service businesses to work towards sustainability in their sector and guides customers towards more sustainable choices. Since its launch in 2009, the organisation has expanded its remit beyond traditional restaurants to include cafes, contract catering and in-flight catering and expanded its geographical scope beyond the United Kingdom.
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 its launch, increasing the number of restaurants it is working with from 52 at launch to over 2,000 in 2013. In 2012 Raymond Blanc, became president of the association.
The challenge for many businesses working in food service was that while sustainability was seen as important, there was no consistency in the way it was defined or addressed. This created confusion the mind of customers about what constituted a sustainable restaurant, and a barrier to action for restaurateurs, who were unclear on where to focus attention.
One of the key aims of the organization has been to demystify sustainability in food service by creating a framework, covering all the elements, which go towards making a business more sustainable. This framework was developed in partnership with subject specific specialists such as RSPCA, Fair Trade, Soil Association, Compassion in World Farming and the Carbon Trust, as well as other organizations working more generally in the area of food service sustainability such as Sustain. The framework is divided into 3 main sections: Environment, social and sourcing and forms the basis of the assessment process by which the SRA rates business.
...
Wikipedia