BACKGROUND
In February 2018 a group of experienced industrial designers, famous chefs and sustainabili- ty experts met in a workshop to discuss how to achieve the ambitious sustainability goals set within Agenda 2030 given the short time left. The food industry could potentially be climate positive but is today notorious for huge resource wastes and generating unnecessary high CO2 throughout the whole value chain.
Even though the participants represented different industries, we as founders, immediately saw potential to crossbreed knowledge and decided to join forces to create a mutual platform where we could prove, in practise, that through circular design thinking, we as a society, can solve social, ecological and economic challenges using the food system as a demonstrator. This insight soon became an independent arena for innovation for the food industry. We call it The Restaurant Lab.
By focusing on best practise and benchmarks using cross-disciplinary teams from academia and the corporate world, both within the food industry as well as from other sectors, we could identify which tangible solutions could be pressure tested in a commercial environment and show that they actually work and lead to sustainability target fulfilment. An innovation space, a live-in-lab, acting as a forum and communication platform, not only for the food industry but also for other players both academic, public and private sector, eager to work for the sameAgenda 2030 goals. The choice of creating an independent place but situated next to theacademic hotspot became the strategy.
PEOPLE, PLANET, PROFIT & PLEASURE
”How environmentally friendly, sustainable & circular can restaurants become?”
Maria von Euler, Initiator & Innovation Director
FOUNDERS
From left to right:
Maria von Euler - Industrial designer, Innovation Director
Elin Abbevik - Industrial designer, Design Director
Johan Gottberg - Sustainability Chef
Stefan Eriksson - Sustainability Chef
Anders Breitholtz - Material designer and Circular Economy Strategist
Pascal Granfeldt Saavedra - Economist in financial services & sustainable finance
MANIFESTO
1. People, planet, profit and pleasure is our motto. There are no contradictions, only synergies!
2. Positive movements is what drives humans forward. We wish to upgrade and increase in value, for everyone and everything ́s sake!
3. What gets measured gets done.
4. We believe in circular economy.
5. No method is more effective than a good example.
6. Cross-disciplinary collaborations creates innovative ideas.
7. To shorten the axis between the academia and the business world pinpoints both challenges and action points.
8. Scalability and local adaptation push innovations further.
9. Traceability, transparency and finding the right KPI ́s are key factors for transformation.
10. Experience, profitability and knowledge transmission are our corner stones.
11. Putting theory into practice creates ripples on the water.
12. The Restaurant Labs are the stepping stone for the frog leap into the future.
