Brett Lavender, Ark
Hi Brett, can you tell us a little bit more about your sustainability work?
Sustainability is at the forefront of everything we do. Plant-based products and sustainability are woven throughout our entire organization – from food to furniture.
Sustainability is not an empty promise but is non-negotiable in our business model, now and in the future. We take an all-encompassing approach to achieve this, from the products we purchase and serve, the delivery process, sourcing, plating, waste sorting, and the overall restaurant setting and experience.
Our tasting menu focuses on seasonality and, where possible, local produce. Furthermore, we turn many of our off-cuts into powders and garnish, reuse our spent wine into sauces, and even save our banana peels for cocktail infusions. They forage and use things that can be used later. With clever tricks and fermentation, so the produce is sustainable. All the waste becomes a powder or a sauce that can be used for another dish. Every waste is actively used to produce something else that can be used in another dish. Cross over kitchen and bar, tomato juice that the palp becomes a powder or garnish for drinks—a creative way to use waste for dishes or garnishes. It takes extra work to make something, but we are committed to the cause.
We are not perfect, but we are trying – and honestly believe the saying that ‘we do not need a handful of people being sustainable perfectly, but millions of people doing it imperfectly.