The 120-cover venue, opening in central Glasgow at the start of next year, will serve exclusively ‘carbon neutral steaks’, according to the restaurant group.
It says its Argentine beef comes from cattle that graze at specially selected pampas farms with the equivalent of four rugby pitches’ worth of space per cow. The carbon emissions of its beef have been reduced at source, then calculated from field to fork at source before being offset through a reforestation programme in the Amazon with charity partner ‘Not For Sale’ that rescues victims from the threat of ‘modern-day slavery’ to plant trees for Gaucho.
Announced during COP 26 in Glasgow, Gaucho CEO Martin Williams has also called on steak restaurateurs to join his Sustainable Steak Movement. The movement encourages restaurants to sign up to a manifesto and pledge that in 2022 they will offer a ‘carbon neutral’ beef option on their menus, promote a ‘carbon neutral’ wine offering, commit to minimise food waste and the use of green energy in their restaurants.
“Glasgow is the perfect location for our first new Gaucho restaurant since 2016 for many reasons, none less than it being the home city of COP 26,” says Williams.
“We created the Sustainable Steak Movement to highlight steak restaurants whose beef offering comes from sustainable farms which have outstanding husbandry and animal welfare in their DNA and that have reduced methane and greenhouse gasses at source, encouraged sequestration and committed to calculate and offset any carbon emissions”.
“We must stop eating intensively reared, poor quality meats and support responsible restaurateurs committed to regenerative farming and providing an ethical, guilt-free beef offering on menus. I hope today’s launch will see many restaurant groups join us in this undertaking”.
The Glasgow venue will be the group’s second ‘carbon free’ restaurant. All of Gaucho’s future openings will serve only carbon neutral beef and as of January next year its 20 restaurants will have a carbon neutral steak and wine offer, according to Williams.