Where to find support for an environmentally conscious food establishment
The growing efforts to bring sustainability to the food industry in Singapore. In all honesty, Singapore has had a slow start in terms of sustainable restaurant establishments and consumer behaviour, but can you believe that some have been leading the movement towards reuse for nearly a decade? Here’s a list of top movement pioneers and new champions below that you can look out for or join if you’re a restaurant, café, or food establishment.
Local charity and non-governmental organisation Zero Waste SG are on a mission to educate on zero waste - notably around disposables, among other areas including food waste. Incorporated in 2015, they’ve actually maintained a resource blog since way back in 2008! Under the BYO Singapore umbrella, ZWSG also runs its flagship campaigns such as Bring Your Own Bag and Bring Your Own Container. From the initial 430 retail outlets that participated in the campaign to encourage customers to bring their own containers, as of September last year over 1000 outlets are now participating in the movement. And of course, barePack is an official BYO member.
As a retailer encouraging BYO and barePack, you can reach out to them to join their list and download their resources to share with your customers.
If you’re looking for a certification of your F&B business, then the Singapore Environment Council (SEC) provides access to the SEC Eco F&B certification to food establishments that meet the required standards. Already, over 50 restaurants, eateries, cafeterias, and other food establishments have been green certified (SEC data). Their programme focuses on assessing the environmental management system of food establishments, using their expertise to help facilitate the adoption of better practices, covering air quality, water, energy, and waste management policies. As part of the latter, barePack is listed among the criteria for a sustainable food establishment.
Contact them to register for the certification or to know more.
BYO (Bring Your Own) Bottle SG is a ground-up initiative on a mission to reduce the wastage of single-use plastics in Singapore. Since 2018, the movement has collaborated with over 25 brands & organisations, and reached out to close to 10,000 people (BYOBottle data). The most impressive part? It took just one individual, a determined student named Kate, to kickstart an initiative with the hopes of sharing her concern and encouraging the nation to choose to reside -if that’s not proof that we all have the power to make a difference, I don’t know what is!
If you want your business to come on-board the BYO Bottle SG initiative, just register online and they’ll send you campaign stickers to paste at your premise. We love Kate and hope to see more youth embrace her lifestyle and mindset.
And this list wouldn’t be complete without the well-loved World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Singapore who is, among many missions for the protection of the environment, tackling single-use plastic waste. Microplastics impact our oceans, food systems, and health in ways we are yet to discover, but their omnipresence is something we can start to fight against today. As such, the organization launched the PACT (Plastic Action) in 2018, providing businesses with guidance and resources to help reduce their plastic consumption. To achieve their vision of No Plastics in Nature by 2030, the roadmap includes targets such as eliminating all unnecessary plastics and supporting the transition to 100% reusable or recyclable product or packaging design models. As such, barePack is part of the recommendations on how to implement sustainable solutions in the sector. According to their report released in 2020, 12 million pieces of plastic packaging and items have been reduced by members from PACT (WWF data).
Your food establishment can set out its individual commitments and help to pave the way for your industry peers. For more information and to sign the PACT, visit their website.
The above programmes all contribute to a solution for food establishments, just as we do. barePack is free for restaurants and food establishments of any size, providing them with SGS Singapore certified reusable containers that save up to 90% on equivalent carbon emissions compared to traditional disposables. Simply reach out to us or register your interest here.
If you have or know of any sustainability solutions for the F&B industry to suggest or are a food establishment looking for more information on how to enable bareback at your premises, please reach out to us or leave a comment.