Searcys have been awarded a three-star Food Made Good accreditation from the Sustainable Restaurant Association.
The SRA works to stimulate and accelerate environmental and social change and progress in the UK hospitality sector. Their three-tiered rating system recognises an organisation’s efforts through assessing its commitment to ten different criteria in three different categories: the provenance of produce, supporting the community and reducing waste and recycling.
Searcys introduced their first sustainability pledges in 2018 to ensure that they were placing our environmental impact at the core of our business. These saw the venues under the Searcys umbrella commit to buying the best ingredients available, working closely with British farmers to ensure that up to 90% of all seasonal fruit and vegetables used in the menus is grown in the UK. The champagne list followed the same principles and shifted its focus to celebrate English sparkling wine.
Searcys only use UK-reared fresh meat, flour milled in England, free-range eggs and milk from Red Tractor-certified farms. All tea and coffee are Fairtrade or Direct Impact sourced, with coffee beans coming from family-run farms in South America.
In light of this, Searcys is set to continue and improve upon its pledges to sustainability throughout 2020.
Searcys MD, Matt Thomas, commented: “Our focus in 2020 will be in bringing sustainability messages to our consumers and focusing on the impact of our actions on the community, our partners and suppliers. We are excited to announce that 1p from every single cup of coffee sold in our cafes and restaurants will be given to sustainable and ethical coffee projects in conjunction with Extract Coffee, and that we have so far collected £13k for the Beyond Food initiative.”
Andrew Stephen, CEO of The Sustainable Restaurant Association said, “Big congratulations to the whole team at Searcys for making such strides in 2019. We particularly commend the commitment to supporting the community, celebrating local product and valuing natural resources.”
The SRA looks at three areas, and within these several criteria. These are:
Sourcing
– The responsible sourcing of local and seasonal produce
– Serving more vegetables and better meat
– Responsibly sourcing fish in order to keep our oceans healthy
– When it is necessary to source produce from global farmers, awareness of the livelihoods of communities and agricultural practices
Society
– Treating people fairly, especially staff, in an industry with a very high turnover
– Giving back to the community through raising money, volunteering time or working with local groups
– Feeding people well and educating them about how to have an interesting and healthy diet
Environment
– A reduction in energy consumption
– Reducing, reusing and recycling
– Cutting food waste
In the report, we scored 88% in celebrating local and seasonal produce, in comparison with the industry average of 72%. We also achieved an 82% in supporting the community in comparison to the average score of 60%. Overall, our score increased by 16% since our 2018 accreditation.
