Rare Restaurants will now serve carbon-neutral beef across all of its Gaucho and M Restaurants sites – two years ahead of its original 2025 target.
Announcing the news on Earth Day (22 April), the business said the achievement had been made through the reduction of emissions at source and the investment in reforestation projects run by its charity partner, Not For Sale.
The result has followed an extensive two-year project managed by scientists and agronomists at the Carbon Group Agro-Climatic Solutions, whereby Rare Restaurants calculated the carbon footprint of all beef for its restaurants from farm to table, with the results showing an average carbon footprint of 15.80kg CO2eq per kilogram of beef purchased.
The business said that ongoing work to reduce carbon emissions at source, and in transportation, continued with the group’s partner farms in Argentina. The remaining carbon emissions are neutralised through a series of restoration projects in the UK and South America.
To reinforce its commitment to sustainability, Gaucho also launched a Sustainable Supper Club series at its flagship Charlotte Street site on 20 April. Each of the monthly events will showcase a different element that contributes to making a restaurant wholly sustainable.
The successes trialled by the Sustainable Supper Club project will be rolled out in all venues and will form an integral part of the group’s target of reaching carbon net zero by 2030.
Martin Williams, CEO of Rare Restaurants, commented: “We are thrilled to offer carbon-neutral beef to all diners over two years ahead of target, as part of our journey to the restaurants having net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
“Since launching the UK’s first carbon-neutral steak restaurant with Gaucho Charlotte Street in 2019, we have invested heavily in projects to calculate and reduce our carbon emissions and we look forward to developing this work over the coming years, with sustainability at the forefront of our minds as Rare Restaurants moves into a period of sustained growth in both new openings and the existing estate.”
