Painting a sustainable scene
October saw months of planning come to fruition as we hosted Gram’s Go Green Summit at The Charlotte Street Hotel in London.
Designed to keep Gram’s passion for sustainability at the forefront of the industry’s mind during the intermittent year between the Gram Green Paper report, we launched The Go Green Debate - a series of three live webinars aimed to raise awareness of the importance of sustainability in the foodservice industry. The three live-streamed, interactive webinars covered key topics such as education, legislation and the future of the foodservice industry.
The culmination of The Go Green Debate, saw the first event of its kind - The Go Green Summit, a free to attend conference which encouraged delegates to take tangible action over our industry's responsibility for its carbon footprint, waste and holistic sustainability approach.
Partnering with Foodservice Equipment Journal, we invited Andrew Seymour, editor, to MC the impressive agenda for the lively and informative event. Joining him on stage was a broad cross section of the industry's most passionate sustainability ambassadors and opinion formers, who each delivered thought-provoking insight and recommendations on how we can all work together to bring about, not only a more sustainable industry, but tangible commercial business benefits - both short and longterm.
Charlotte Henderson from Wrap kicked off our debate and shared the concerning figure that out of 100 potatoes grown only 25 are eaten. While the following session led by Dominic Burbridge from The Carbon Trust revealed the staggering statistic that one tonne of CO2e costs £200 from electricity, and £340 from diesel.
While Chris Moore from The Clink Restaurants and The Clink Charity asked the audience to reconsider their position on sustainability and suggested that rather than having a single-minded approach, the industry should consider the sustainability of people alongside their carbon footprint and used the development of The Clink Restaurants to demonstrate this.
The final session was held by CESA’s Keith Warren, who shared his insight on the EU Ecodesign directive and the critical dates for businesses, with the legislation due to be implemented by July 2016. Keith rounded off his session by chairing a panel, which included Gram’s MD, Glenn Roberts, Winterhalter’s commercial director, Andy Blake and MKN’s sales and marketing director, Stuart Long. The panel shared detailed insight into sustainability within manufacturing and the responsibility to provide the market with energy efficient products.
The Go Green Summit was an unprecedented success, receiving critical acclaim from the senior industry figures who attended. The commitment and passion for driving the sustainable agenda as well as the continuous investment in developing ever more energy efficient technology, firmly positions Gram as sustainable innovators. Next year sees the 5th edition of The Green Paper, an in-depth report that looks in to the attitudes and behaviour of operators across a myriad of foodservice channels - we look forward to seeing how the industry is making a difference - as Gandhi said – “the future depends on what we do in the present”.
Top 10 findings from the day:ALL WE EAT NEEDS WATER TO GROW
UN Water.org
