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Much fêted London steak joint Hawksmoor has just been awarded the maximum 3* rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association, making it one of the most sustainable restaurant groups in the country. That, despite the fact that eating meat – especially beef – is one of the most negatively impactful things you can do, on a gastronomic tip, at least. Now the company has announced that it plans to go even further.
Its founders are pledging Hawksmoor to become carbon neutral in 2022, and they have signed up to the United Nations’ ‘Race to Zero’, with the goal of being net zero by 2030.
Despite its meaty remit, Hawksmoor has made sustainability and eco-awareness part of its business for many years, with 100 percent of its food waste being sent to anaerobic digestion to become biogas, and oil from its fryers being used to power vehicles.
As we have written about extensively recently, London restaurants face huge challenges in adapting their approaches, technologies and menus to become more sustainable. Post-pandemic (whatever that actually means r n), it’s probably the single biggest issue in the future of London’s hospitality industry, so it’s interesting to see that one of the city’s most famous chains is making this commitment. Hawksmoor currently has seven London branches (Seven Dials, Guildhall, Air Street, Borough, Knightsbridge, Spitalfields and Wood Wharf), plus ones in Manchester, Edinburgh and New York, so this is quite a big promise from the company.
And who knows? Maybe by 2030, fake meat will be so good that we won’t be eating cows anyway.