Sustainability within the supply chain has had a long and tumultuous history – from the outlawing of slavery to the current initiatives to drive out forced labour.
Currently in North-West Africa, chocolate manufacturers are sweeping child slave labour out of their supply chains, in response to a lawsuit from children represented by International Rights Advocates, who say they were forced into slavery on cocoa plantations which supplied Nestle, Mars, Mondelēz and Hershey with cocoa. Not only are such supply chain offences illegal, but perhaps more damagingly, a PR disaster.
A recent report from Garnier shows that 73% of consumers want to be more sustainable and buying from a business with unsustainable credentials will put many off or incur a boycott.
Following successful public shaming of those discovered to be hiding unsustainable practices (such as the Nescafe boycott 1977-1984), supply chain sustainability has become an essential element in business.
Although protecting vulnerable people from exploitation remains a high priority, finding answers to environmental pollution and waste management is also deeply necessary.
A Michelin Guide Inspector and Better Origin spoke with Sustainability, to discuss their management of supply chain sustainability and why it’s important.
The new Michelin Guide Green Star supports supply chain sustainability
France,1889: Brothers Andre and Edouard Michelin opened a tire company now known across the world. To help the French automobile industry sell more cars (and tyres), they put together The Michelin Guide, to enable travellers to find places to eat. Stars denoted the finest establishments and the brothers were able to pay inspectors to visit the restaurants anonymously to rate them.
The Michelin Guide has added the Michelin Green Star and an anonymous Michelin Guide Inspector spoke with Sustainability to explain why.
“The Green Star was introduced for the first time in the United States last fall during the California Family Meal event”, says the Michelin Guide Inspector. “This new collection of restaurants brings together chefs with a common cause, whose inspiring initiatives and methods help to raise awareness of the importance of environmental issues. Throughout our U.S. selections, MICHELIN Guide inspectors have found many chefs who are committed to promoting regional products while skillfully crafting cuisine that respects nature and seasonal changes.”
Awards based on sustainability are growing in popularity – from the Earthshot prize to the Net Zero Leader of the Year. Why is it important to celebrate sustainable chefs?
“For many years, the MICHELIN Guide has witnessed the work of chefs and the paths they have taken in striving for ethical practices”, explains our Michelin Guide Inspector. “Today, we are using all of our available communication channels to showcase these chefs and their teams. Our goal is to shine a light, for the industry and the general public, on the practices and philosophies that are contributing towards a more virtuous world.”
So what are the Michelin Green Star chefs doing to be more sustainable?
“Every MICHELIN Green Star restaurant is different and works in its own unique way”, explains the Michelin Guide Inspector. “But all make a difference to the world around them and act as role models to us all, by:
- Working directly with growers, farmers and fishermen
- Foraging in hedgerows and woodlands
- Growing plants and rearing animals
- Using regenerative methods such as no-dig vegetable gardens and successional cover crop growing
“They also often go beyond environmental considerations, to address issues related to ethics and wellbeing, as well as contributing to local, national or global charitable and educational projects.”
For those aspiring chefs, Michelin looks for a responsible attitude to the food supply chain.
“There is no specific formula for awarding a MICHELIN Green Star, as every restaurant and its surrounding region has a unique set of conditions. The Inspectors are simply looking for those at the top of their game when it comes to their sustainable practices. They consider things such as:
- The provenance of the ingredients
- The use of seasonal produce
- The restaurant’s environmental footprint
- Food waste systems
- General waste disposal and recycling
- Resource management
- The communication between the team and the guests about the restaurant’s sustainable approach.”
Carbon offsetting is not the answer to decarbonising the supply chain
Biotech company Better Origin, sees a future without food waste. Using AI-powered insect mini-farms to convert leftover nutrients into essential nutrients, the company can reduce food waste and emissions. Fotis Fotiadis, co-founder & CEO of Better Origin, aims to maintain supply chain sustainability for the long run.
“At Better Origin, we have developed the tools to convert food waste into nutritious, high value food for animals”, explains Fotiadis. “We can deploy our systems on farms, food waste facilities or supermarkets and we convert the waste into different products, such as feed for chickens or fish. That will vary, based on the input of the food waste you put in. If you have, for example, grains that come out of a brewery, these are very clean and there’s nothing wrong with them – we can actually convert that into human food.
“We do all that through a decentralised and highly autonomous system. This is very important, because we can deploy a system on site and the user, whether that is a farmer or an operator, they do not need to know anything about farming insects. We do all of that remotely and our software does the farming. We have lowered the barrier to entry for anyone who wants to start farming insects.”
Fotiadis is adamant that there are better solutions than carbon offsetting, for companies who want to decarbonise the food supply chain.
“Carbon offsets are a very hot area of discussion at the moment”, says Fotiadis. “However, the risk with offsets is that it’s almost like a permission to pollute. If you think: Instead of trying to minimise that, I’m going to go and buy offsets from someone planting trees in Cambodia – then job done! But actually that doesn’t solve the problem.
“If we were to use carbon offsets to mitigate this problem and decarbonise the food supply chain, we would run out of land in a few years. I am a big supporter of the net zero movement and it is great to see governments, consumers and retailers pushing towards that, but we need to start looking into how we can make meaningful changes to reducing emissions and not just continuing business as usual.”
So as businesses move to more sustainable options, what role should supply chains be playing?
“Supply chains should be working with companies, to be able to find where they can reduce or eliminate emissions. That happens at the source, where the emissions are created. The way we work at Better Origin, because of the flexibility we have with our systems and the autonomous element that we built in the system, all we can do is work with companies like supermarkets and go and plug our systems in the supply chain to decarbonise it. We would just go and put in our systems and convert their food waste into products that can go back onto their shelves. What you do there, is that you really start closing the loop into this food cycle or into the food supply chain.
“You mitigate the emissions at the source by:
- Avoiding food waste
- Producing food locally
“This also produces profit, because when you plant trees to pay for that carbon offset, there’s nothing to return, unlike when you actually clean up your emissions using our technology. We can reduce food waste, reduce emissions and produce a product that we can then sell back into your stores. That’s a core value of our company as well. It doesn’t make sense the way our capitalistic society works – it’s not going to work. You need to make money out of being sustainable.
“That’s why we’ve worked a lot on a solution that can reduce emissions, while being profitable and cleaning up the emissions at the source of your supply chain. The core of what we do, to help these companies decarbonise the food supply chain”, says Fotiadis.
From the companies that Better Origin have worked with, the response has been hopeful.
“In the food production sector, it’s quite a large, slow moving industry”, says Fotiadis. “You’re convinced about the changes, but once they get convinced, they are quite fast to adopt. The reception so far has been very positive, even if it takes a bit of time to get them to the point of adopting.”
Consumers are growing keener to consume responsibly
The world’s population is expected to hit 9bn in 2070. Yet in 2020, the UN classed 811mn people as ‘under-nourished’, although this was partly due to the pandemic. At Better Origin, the company has seen some promising developments arise from Covid.
“We’ve seen a big change after the pandemic, both from companies adopting our technology and investors”, explains Fotiadis. “People are finally realising that the next big crisis is the climate change crisis. The next reason we might be in a lockdown – if it’s not another pandemic – could be adverse climate conditions.”
An environmental catastrophe, such as another flood or heat wave, could impact the food supply chain.
“As restaurants continue to reevaluate their supply chains, a local, sustainable focus is more of an interest now than ever before”, concludes the Michelin Guide Inspector. “The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated our focus on the state of our planet and the responsibility we each bear. The MICHELIN Green Star has found its natural place and is strengthened every day through discussions with professionals in the industry and foodies across the world who are eager to consume more responsibly”.
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