News & insights / News / 27.08.24

The Food Made Good Standard is now available in Traditional Chinese!

We are thrilled to announce that businesses can now complete the Food Made Good Standard in Traditional Chinese! Also available in English, Spanish and Japanese, this marks language number four for the Standard – the only global sustainability accreditation tailored for the hospitality sector.

LAUNCHING THE TRADITIONAL CHINESE STANDARD

At an awards ceremony on 27th August in the Grand Hyatt Taipei, Green Dining Guide (GDG) launched the new language option of the Food Made Good platform, along with unveiling their new Green Dining Guide website. A highlight of the event saw technology company Wistron NeWeb Corporation (WNC) 啓碁科技股份有限公司 awarded with two stars (out of a maximum possible three) in the Food Made Good Standard. This was the first ever business to complete the Food Made Good Standard in Traditional Chinese.

In early 2023, Taiwan joined Japan, Hong Kong, Italy and the UAE on the list of The SRA’s key global partnerships, created to extend the reach of the Food Made Good Standard. The SRA’s strategic partnership with GDG builds on their decade of outstanding work to promote sustainable food, encouraging restaurants in Taiwan to achieve the Food Made Good Standard and supporting them in doing so.

Managing Director of The SRA, Juliane Caillouette Noble, said, “It is really exciting for us to continue adding new languages to the Food Made Good Standard platform, making this unique accreditation accessible to more and more F&B businesses across the globe. Our partnership with Green Dining Guide is making a real difference to sustainability within Taiwan’s hospitality industry and we hope that adding Traditional Chinese to the platform will encourage even more businesses to sign up, assess their sustainability and learn how to improve even further.”

A pivotal moment for APAC

We’re passionate about driving positive change through the hospitality industry worldwide, and launching the Standard in Traditional Chinese is the latest development in our growing presence in Asia. Through a strategic partnership with Green Dining Guide in Taiwan and a presence on the ground in Hong Kong, our team is seeing incredible changes begin to take place across the APAC region, with the desire to build sustainable food systems for the future taking root.

The energy and transport industries are two of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions and the climate crisis, but both are successfully decarbonising at a rapid and increasing rate. As the transition to green energy and fuel accelerates, the food and agricultural industry will take centre stage as the most pressing and least addressed issue. Within the next 10 years, our food systems will be the primary focus in the fight against the climate crisis – but it will be too late to catalyse the scale of change that we need.

This is a pivotal moment across the globe. In particular, countries across Asia have an opportunity to act more decisively than their Western counterparts have done, learning from the mistakes others have made over the past two decades and stepping into the future as world leaders in food systems transformation. With its unique position at the intersection between food producers and food consumers, the hospitality industry has a critical role to play.

The Sustainable Restaurant Association is here to help. Making the Food Made Good Standard available in Traditional Chinese is just one way we’re providing support, advice and encouragement to F&B businesses in Taiwan, Hong Kong and further afield.

Taiwan is leading the charge in sustainability

In Taiwan, Green Media have been promoting sustainable diets since 2018 through their Green Dining Guide, educating restaurants and customers around the importance of choosing organic and local foods, following sustainable principles, providing vegetarian options and reducing waste. Since then and through their strategic partnership with The SRA and the Food Made Good Standard, they report a continuing shift in public perceptions and desires around sustainable diets, with purchasing behaviours and food choices now reflecting a greater demand for environmentally friendly dining options.

Taiwan is now poised to become a leader for sustainable development in the region. Making the Food Made Good Standard available in Traditional Chinese is one way we’re offering our support, advice and encouragement to F&B businesses in Taiwan and further afield.

Supporting sustainable hospitality in Taiwan

The Green Dining Guide is a green-eating promotion campaign launched by the Taipei Cultural Exploration Association in 2018. When GDG started on its mission to promote sustainability, it used the Green Food Manifesto: prioritising the purchase of organic foods, buying local, following sustainable principles, decreasing the number of additives, providing vegetarian choices and reducing wasted resources.

The movement grew quickly and, by 2023, with more than 200 restaurants in Taiwan, GDG was the perfect choice to become a new partner for The SRA. By supporting local restaurants as they progress through the Food Made Good Standard and become certified, GDG is actively promoting the concept of sustainable dining in Taiwan and engaging more Taiwanese restaurants on the sustainability journey.

Supporting sustainable hospitality in Hong Kong

In recent months, Hong Kong has also been making real strides towards a sustainable future, including the sustainable development of the agriculture and fishery sectors and big changes in how the region handles waste.

In March this year, our team of sustainability experts produced the Hong Kong Plastics Guide to facilitate a smooth transition to the Single-Use Plastics ban, in effect for the region’s F&B sector as of April 22^nd. To ensure that as many businesses as possible have access to this valuable resource, the Guide is publicly available and downloadable, free of charge, and includes both English and Traditional Chinese translations. This level of practical support will continue with a further resource to launch this summer, created to offer similar guidance ahead of the Municipal Solid Waste Charging Scheme.

DOWNLOAD OUR FREE HONG KONG PLASTICS GUIDE

The SRA’s growing network in Hong Kong includes F&B businesses from across the sector, ranging from casual to fine dining establishments like One Harbour Road at the Grand Hyatt and Michelin-starred Andō, Mora and Roganic, as well as hotels such as The Upper House, East Hotel and The Mira Hotel.

In its work to support Hong Kong’s hospitality sector and facilitate a transition to sustainable operations, The SRA is also acting in partnership with campaigns like Food Waste to Good Taste and local organisations like CHOMP and Green Hospitality – and it’s making a difference. From a hotel with its own indoor vertical farming system to a vast array of sustainable dining options, Hong Kong’s F&B industry is quickly evolving to become a new leader in sustainability for the APAC region.

With the Food Made Good Standard now available in Traditional Chinese, we hope to see more hospitality businesses in Taiwan and Hong Kong sign up to assess, report and celebrate their sustainability work.

What is the Food Made Good Standard?

The Food Made Good Standard is the only global sustainability accreditation designed for the hospitality industry. The accreditation aims to encourage, support and recognise sustainability practices across the F&B industry worldwide. Taking a big-picture, holistic view of what sustainability should mean for the sector, the Standard is awarded to F&B businesses around the world that meet a set of rigorous, measurable criteria across three main focus areas: Sourcing, Society and Environment.

In 2023, we launched a new, improved version of the Food Made Good Standard. Supported by a more user-friendly platform, this updated Standard is now globally accessible, applicable and relevant, allowing restaurants anywhere in the world to sign up and assess their sustainability. The Standard can now be accessed and used in English, Spanish, Japanese and Traditional Chinese, with more languages still to come.

The Sustainable Restaurant Association operates in Taiwan and Hong Kong and can support your business in working towards a sustainable future (and reaping the benefits of doing so). Ready to embrace sustainability? Sign up today for the Food Made Good Standard!

If you have any questions about the Standard or any other way we can help you on your journey, please get in touch with Karen Finnerty at karen@thesra.org.

Growth & Partnerships Director, APAC

KAREN FINNERTY

Email KAREN FINNERTY
Karen heads up The SRA's communications function in APAC covering the following territories: Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. With 13 years experience in PR and communications, Karen has worked in Ireland, the UK and Hong Kong in agency and in-house roles with a variety of consumer and hospitality brands. Specialising in strategy development and implementation, brand positioning and advocacy, Karen most recently ran a regional hospitality and luxury lifestyle PR agency in Hong Kong.