The Sustainable Restaurant Association: helping our restaurant members become global leaders in sustainability.
The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) is a national not-for-profit membership association, providing restaurants with advice and support to help them navigate the whole spectrum of sustainability issues. As well as membership, the SRA rewards and celebrates restaurants who are leading the field with a ‘sustainability rating’ based on an independent Audit covering all the different aspects of the restaurant’s operations.
The SRA also highlights issues such as declining fish stocks, food waste and animal welfare through consumer campaigns designed to engage the public and encourage them to make more sustainable choices whether dining out or in.
A ‘not for profit’ organisation is one where any surplus funds are used to support the organisation’s aims, and not distributed to owners or shareholders.
Although we launched March 2010, the idea for the Sustainable Restaurant Association has been germinating for some time...
Founders Giles Gibbons (CEO and Founder, Good Business), Mark Sainsbury (Founder, Moro and The Zetter Hotel), Henry Dimbleby (Founder, Leon) and Simon Heppner (Sustainability Director, Good Business) knew that a growing number of restaurants wanted to improve their sustainable performance. They also found that customers wanted more sustainable action from their eating establishments.
What wasn’t immediately obvious was where restaurants could go to get all the sustainable information they needed, from under one roof. Sustainability is about long-term success but it’s a complicated subject and until now, there’s been no industry body to provide the consistent guidance and support that restaurants need.
Like-minded customers also needed a way to locate restaurants that were serious about sustainability. Those that are actively sourcing local and seasonal produce, reducing waste, increasing energy efficiency or serving Fair Trade – just some of the activities our sustainable restaurants are involved in. The Sustainable Restaurant Association fulfills both these briefs.
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What is sustainability?
Sustainability is about a business managing not only the financial but also the social and environmental impact of its operations. By taking sustainable action, restaurants can make a huge difference on issues such as climate change, animal welfare and food waste. More>
What are sustainable restaurants?
How do we define sustainable restaurants and what do restaurants have to do to become Members of the Sustainable Restaurant Association? We want to help as many restaurants as possible become more sustainable, so we've tried to keep our Membership Terms and Conditions as simple and flexible as possible More>
Advisory Board
Our Advisory Board comprises leading sustainable experts, restaurateurs and industry entrepreneurs. The aim of our Advisory Board is to review, guide and support the Sustainable Restaurant Association More>
Supporters
The Sustainable Restaurant Association is a not-for-profit, limited company. Find out about more about our funding, core support and expert advisors More>
