How is ‘Food Made Good’ Growing Across the Globe? 7 Key Questions

1. Why was it important for us to update and adapt the Food Made Good Standard?

I started at The SRA after the Food Made Good Standard had been updated, but I know from discussions with the Standard team that there were two really important reasons why they decided to update and adapt it.

First and foremost, it was vital that the accreditation reflected changes in trends and our understanding of the sustainability topics we cover. This is something that The SRA will have to keep doing over time. If we want to drive a socially progressive and environmentally restorative hospitality sector, it’s important that the advice we provide to the businesses we work with reflects the most recent information on how to get there. We needed updates across all our pillars – Sourcing, Society and Environment – to reflect the reality we face today. This included extra focus on topics such as staff wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, biodiversity and circularity.

We also can’t achieve our vision by working in the UK alone, so beyond the content, it was also vital for the Standards team to make sure Food Made Good was applicable and available to businesses anywhere in the world. A big focus for us as an organisation is how we can grow our impact through restaurants across all corners of the planet – and refreshing the Standard, as well as our website and process, made Food Made Good much more user-friendly and accessible on a global scale. 

2. How did we go about this update, and what changed?

In order to ensure that Food Made Good was a valuable, comprehensive and holistic Framework for sustainability in Food & Beverage businesses, The SRA couldn’t develop it alone. That’s why the process involved advice and input from experts in different areas of the Framework, to ensure the Standard was relevant, useful and up-to-date. Contributors ranged from organisations such as The Ellen MacArthur Food Initiative and WRAP to hospitality professionals like CH&Co and Heart With Smart Group, ensuring a balance between subject matter expertise and insights from those closest to the operational realities of running a F&B business. This support helped the Standard team to create a Framework that delivers practical value in driving sustainability within that context.

The consultation and process led to changes across all our pillars to sit in line with the latest advice and developments in best practice. Our Sourcing pillar has a wider scope, allowing us to dive deeper into topics such as supplier and trading relationships and traceability. On Society, we saw more information required around professional development and job security – as well as examining in greater detail how a business interacts with its local community. And on the Environmental side, we incorporated a greater focus on carbon emissions and a new section on pollution, reflecting the urgency of action required to tackle the climate crisis.

3. In your opinion, what’s the most special/unique thing about the FMG Standard?

There are two aspects of Food Made Good that make it a really special means of supporting hospitality businesses in becoming more sustainable. The first is that the Standard itself is designed specifically for F&B businesses. It’s not some idealistic and unattainable set of measures that aren’t fit for purpose for our sector – it’s built by people who know the industry and understand its nuances, and therefore it reflects the real challenges we face in kitchens.

As well as being truly reflective, Food Made Good also gives you a tangible, practical action plan for how you can improve – the report you get as an output is tailored to you, and will guide you through the next steps you should take for your business to become more sustainable. That, for me, is what makes it unique – it makes Food Made Good more than just a stamp for sustainability – and it’s why world-renowned chefs and hospitality businesses use it in their restaurants to support their own journeys.

4. What’s our global presence like today, now that 2024 is properly underway?

Whilst we’ve always worked to help businesses from all corners of the world, since launching Food Made Good globally we have seen a lot of interest in the accreditation and Framework from different countries. We already have hospitality businesses across 22 different countries working through the Standard. We’re about to see our first accredited restaurant in Australia, Brae – and the likes of Potato Head (our first in Bali) and the Rosewood Hotel in Sao Paulo began the process at the start of the year!

We’re also incredibly lucky to have a diverse team and network of partners that support us in driving our mission around the world. Our global office stretches from the UK to Ireland, France and Hong Kong, while we have partner organisations supporting our efforts beyond. In the UAE, our partners recently supported BOCA through their accreditation, achieving an incredible three stars. The winner of the first Food Made Good Italia Award will be announced in March, so we’re excited to see our first restaurants in Italy getting the accreditation in the coming months.

Our partnerships are a fantastic way to spread the reach of Food Made Good – whether that’s working with the World’s 50 Best, or judging Flor de Cana’s Sustainable Cocktail Challenge – and I’m always excited to hear from committed organisations that want to work together to support hospitality businesses in becoming more sustainable.

5. What’s your background and how did you come to work at The SRA?

I started my career working with the hospitality sector at Diageo, where I held a number of different roles across the Commercial and Strategy teams. My first role saw me selling everything from Guinness to premium gin and vodka to pubs, restaurants and hotels across Nottingham and Leicester. At the beginning of the week I’d buy the stock from a wholesaler, then visit 10 venues a day to sell it. I absolutely loved it – I learnt so much by talking to so many different people and businesses every day – but most importantly learnt how fantastic it is to work with this industry.

Following my time with Diageo, I moved to the not-for-profit sector, first at Prostate Cancer UK, then moving to Fairtrade. At Fairtrade, I held a number of roles, leading the Out Of Home team and the relationship with major Fairtrade retailers such as Greggs before establishing the Partnership Development team. When I saw the role at The SRA, it was the perfect opportunity to merge these two worlds – the ambition to work in sustainability and in a purpose-driven role, and doing this within the sector I love!

6. What’s your favourite thing about your role at The SRA?

It has to be the sheer breadth and variation in the people and types of businesses we support, to whom I get to speak on a day-to-day basis. I remember in my first few weeks having a day that saw me meeting a fast-food chain at one of their sites in Notting Hill in the morning, before heading over to meet the Head Chef in the kitchen of one of our long-standing three-star accredited restaurants, The Ritz. This was shortly followed by a virtual call with a group in the USA!

Although these are all very different businesses, in different countries, the point is that Food Made Good can support all of them on their sustainability journey. That means I have the pleasure of meeting people from widely varying businesses from all corners of the sector, all around the world.

7. Can you share one or two sustainability stories that have really impressed you since you started?

I recently hosted a panel with the team down at Pasture, and what they are doing in Bristol and Cardiff is really impressive. The whole ethos of their concept has been built around sustainability – growing vegetables on their own farm where possible, and a real focus on strong relationships with local suppliers where not. A lot of the recipes are curated to make sure they’re minimising food waste – but they also have an in-house aerobic digester which helps turn any waste into compost, which they then reuse on their farm – a great example of circularity! They recently became the first three-star independent restaurant in Wales, and they still talk about how Food Made Good gives them ideas to improve and invigorates their team when it comes to sustainability work.

While the work that Pasture does is incredible, I hear little snippets of inspiration every day from businesses who are consistently doing a little better than they were yesterday. This can be anything from groups like Wahaca swapping out their steak tacos – their third best-selling dish – in order to utilise less commonly used cuts of beef, to the independent Danish restaurant with whom I spoke recently taking unused table water back into the kitchen for use in food preparation. We don’t need everyone to be perfect immediately, but if every restaurant improved by even 1%, it would make a big difference. Across our network, there are lots of great examples of restaurants doing these small, smart things, and we try to celebrate these as much as we can.

Fancy a chat with Will? Get in touch at will@thesra.org, or learn more about the Food Made Good Standard here.