Announcing The World's 50 Best Restaurants Sustainability Award Winner!

Sustainable sourcing at Nobelhart & Schmutzig

• They only buy ingredients produced within 250km from Berlin's city limits. 
• They have created a new sous-chef position intended to help widen their network of producers, to encourage more direct and informative contact, to allow for feedback on crop management and purchasing plans and to allow the team to react quicker to nature (for example, when a product has reached the perfect degree of ripeness and flavour). This position also includes time dedicated for the employee to head out into nature and forage responsibly. 
• Their teas are produced from regional herbs that are dried in-house.
• To support producers, they pre-finance specific planting/husbandry projects. For example, co-financing a breeding station for their chicken farmer, Lars Odefey, allows him to breed heritage chicken varieties. They also financed a fermentation room for their herb gardener, Olaf Schnelle.  
• They source their charcoal for grilling from Thomas Faißt, who uses beechwood felled in winter using traditional, sustainable methods. 
• While 90% of their menu is vegetarian, for the animal products that they do use, they prioritise high standards of animal welfare. They ensure high-quality feed for the animals, slaughter on the farm to reduce stress, avoid unnecessary use of antibiotics, and feature heritage species that are not inbred and grow more slowly and naturally. Furthermore, they ensure that the whole animal is used by scheduling the slaughter of the animal to share it with other restaurants in the city. 
• They have decided not to serve seafood because the supply chain to which they have access is not transparent.

Social sustainability at Nobelhart & Schmutzig

• Nobelhart & Schmutzig’s care for their staff is evident, and this year, they had a particular focus on their people. One of the greatest highlights is their development of a Guide of Conduct to provide staff with a secure work environment, which contains detailed guidance to make the work environment inclusive and safe. The language used is clear, warm and never patronising; their goal is to build a culture of growth, both for their employees as individuals and for the team as a whole. This isn’t just an onboarding document; it explains the specific actions being taken, including investing time and money in diversity coaching, workshops and a ‘suggested reading’ list.
• The Guide of Conduct includes the implementation of a code system for safety during service; staff members are encouraged to call the code if they feel unsafe so that actions can be taken. They have also appointed an external, independent ‘person of confidence’ to whom staff members can go to report an offence.
• On ‘Dessert Saturdays’, one employee can pick a dessert of their choice or make one for the entire team, providing a simple joyful moment each week.
• They offer continued education for employees such as specialist training in butchery, cheesemaking or fermentation. Additionally, each employee has the chance to take part in an external internship for two weeks every year to improve their skills outside of everyday business. Beyond culinary skills, they also provide training on effective interactions with customers and other people, and on diversity and sensitivity. 
• They name the Gemeinschafts Symposium as their biggest achievement of 2023; this event connected over 300 farmers and restaurants around Berlin to establish a new understanding of German food culture based on local products, gathering all actors from the culinary scene and giving food producers a stage. In their own words, "With the symposium, we want to share knowledge and foster deeper relationships between producers and chefs/gastronomes."
• They are committed to supporting their community, in numerous ways: sourcing beeswax candles made by people with disabilities in Seewalde; participating in the 'Suppe mit Sinn' campaign, collecting €1 for each prix fixe menu and donating €2,500 to the Berliner Tafel food bank; and taking part in the yearly ‘Wir haben es Satt,’ demonstration, promoting change in the food and agriculture industries.
• They support art projects such as Vulvae, #feeltheV, Florian Auer, etc., where they pay an artist to use their front window for their exhibition, helping to communicate their message. 

Environmental impact at Nobelhart & Schmutzig

• All their energy is sustainably sourced, using certified green power from Stadtwerken Flensburg with the seal of approval from OK Power Öko-Institut.eV.
• To reduce carbon emissions from the sourcing of their ingredients, they work with a logistics partner, Markthalle9, on creating collection points for their producers. This cuts down on unnecessary travel, time and CO². They also ensure that their producers use reusable containers; one example is their milk being delivered in steel milk cans. 
• Their approach is all-encompassing and embraces the concept of circularity, from having their napkins sewn from old bedsheets and tablecloths and creating staff uniforms crafted from old garments to using wine carafes purchased from flea markets and gluing together broken crockery for continued use. Even old wine corks are collected and recycled into insulation products.
• They have reduced energy consumption by replacing freezing with other preservation methods where suitable, such as fermenting in glass or clay jars.

Huge congratulations to the entire team at Nobelhart & Schmutzig for this incredible achievement!

How The SRA works with 50 Best

In 2013, The World’s 50 Best introduced a new award, the Sustainable Restaurant Award, to celebrate one restaurant on the 50 Best list that was tirelessly working to source and serve food fit for the future.   

In order to judge this award, 50 Best enlisted our help as the experts in what sustainability should look like for the hospitality industry. Based on our Food Made Good Framework, we developed a globally relevant questionnaire for restaurants to use in their application, providing information across three key areas: Sourcing, Society and Environment. Over the years, as our Food Made Good Standard has evolved, we’ve refined this questionnaire to ensure it captures the most up-to-date issues faced by restaurants aiming to operate sustainably. 

Since then, our partnership has expanded to include the sustainability awards for all seven lists produced by 50 Best, assessing restaurants, bars and hotels around the world. It is our great pleasure to celebrate these chefs and businesses on a global level; the variety and creativity of sustainability initiatives cropping up in F&B businesses is nothing short of incredible, and we’re consistently impressed with the ever-increasing standard of entries.

Read more about Nobelhart & Schmutzig at their website. You can learn more about our partnership with The World’s 50 Best here, or take a deeper dive into our Food Made Good Framework (encompassing the three pillars of Sourcing, Society and Environment) here. Interested in how the Food Made Good Standard might benefit your restaurant? Drop us a line at standard@thesra.org!