Sustainable Restaurant Association aims for 1000 audits

The SRA officially launches later this month at trade exhibition Hotelympia, but has already conducted a number of successful pilot audits, including neighbourhood restaurant Alimentum in Cambridge, The Zetter in London and the healthy fast-food chain Leon.

Once it is launched the aim is to audit both independent and chain restaurants that collectively account for 1,000 sites within the first 12 months, according to SRA project manager Alexandra Tredget.

Signed up Restaurant groups already expected to sign up for an audit include Carluccio’s, which has 42 sites across the UK, Pizza Hut and D&D London. Tredget said it was also targeting independent restaurants both in the capital and beyond, with other restaurants likely to be involved at an early stage including Wahaca, Hawksmoor, Feng Sushi and Due South in Brighton. Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of Leon and an SRA director, said the association would in addition be looking for well-known chefs in different regions of the UK to become local ambassadors to encourage more local, independent restaurants to sign up to the audit. “I have a number of chefs in mind who I think will be good at encouraging restaurants local to their area to sign up, but I haven’t spoken with any of them yet,” he said. This week is Sustainability Week on BigHospitality. For more on the subject see our Special Feature: Sustainability​​​