UK airline giant Virgin Atlantic has partnered with the Sustainable Restaurant Association, a non-profit that helps UK restaurants improve environmental footprints, to have its entire global catering operation assessed for sustainability.
The new contract will be the largest catering sustainability assessment to be tackled by the SRA, which has already rated over 1,200 restaurants to date. The SRA assessment evaluates 14 sustainability areas such as energy efficiency, water usage and waste. Participants must complete a 65-question survey, upon which they are scored using a star rating from one to three.
SRA says those branded “Three-Star Sustainability Champions” score well in several categories and receive above a 70 percent on the survey, while “One-Star Sustainability Champions” total more than 50 percent and have decent sustainability offerings.
“Our sustainability rating is now regarded as the industry standard for restaurants,” said Mark Linehan, managing director of the SRA. “We applaud Virgin Atlantic for taking the lead among airlines and look forward to working with them and other airlines to identify and manage the unique sustainability challenges posed by in-flight catering.”
Virgin Atlantic flies to over 34 international destinations and carries some six million passengers a year. It maintains 38 aircraft and will soon add 16 “green” Boeing 787 Dreamliners to its operating fleet. The company says the new craft, along with teaming up with SRA, comes as part of its “Change is in the Air” program, which strives to improve multiple sustainability aspects within the airline.
“Value for money and quality of product are of course hugely important factors, but our passengers now rightly demand that we look beyond that, and ensure we are making the most sustainable choices,” said Reuben Arnold, director of customer experience at Virgin Atlantic. “The SRA ratings will allow us to understand how we and our global suppliers are performing on this front, and how to work closely together to drive improvements.”
In 2011, Virgin Atlantic announced that within three years it would power commercial flights with a low-carbon aviation fuel made from recycled waste gas. The fuel captures waste gases from industrial steel production and converts it into jet fuel through a fermentation technology developed by Swedish Biofuels. The company claims the resulting fuel has half the carbon footprint of standard jet fuel.
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Founder, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Apr 4, 2013 5pm EDT / 2pm PDT / 10pm BST / 11pm CEST