An industry first: The Sustainable Foodservice Professional course is now live!

LEAF is thrilled to announce the launch of the Sustainable Foodservice Professional online program!

Working in the industry for the past 10 years, it became obvious to us that there was a gap. Often times restaurant owners and leadership had the best intentions and plans for how to make their restaurant more sustainable, but front line staff weren’t always equipped with the knowledge or skills to support that effort. Or sometimes, leaders themselves would make poor sustainability decisions, not having the foundational knowledge to make good ones. We knew we wanted to find a way to bring that foundational knowledge to the masses, in a convenient, inexpensive and accessible way.

For the past 3 years, LEAF has attended the Restaurants Canada Show in Toronto and had the pleasure of meetings hundreds of people in the industry, including instructors at Canada’s best Culinary and Hospitality schools and their students. Both instructors and students told us they were interested in having sustainability education to supplement their programs.

So, in 2019, we got to work. LEAF, in partnership with industry expert André LaRiviere of The Next Course™, has created an industry first: a ground-breaking online sustainability program for both Foodservice and Hospitality professionals, and Culinary and Hospitality students: The SUSTAINABLE FOODSERVICE PROFESSIONAL (SFP) CERTIFICATE PROGRAM.

With other global issues demanding urgent attention, there’s more change in store for the restaurant and hospitality industry, and the communities who support and sustain it. One smart way to prep for those challenges is to future-proof. 

The Sustainable Foodservice Professional (SFP) program provides inspiring e-learning experiences on best practices in future-proof sustainability principles across all aspects of foodservice & hospitality operations and management. 

Students learn how basic sustainable policies and adaptable practices provide the kind of resilience essential for businesses and careers. Featuring experts and leaders in the Culinary and Sustainability industries, the SFP Student Edition will help participants to add in-demand, strategic skills and enhance their career prospects. 

✔ Learn the foundations of a sustainable foodservice operation

✔ Reduce personal and professional environmental impact

✔ Rise to the top of the hiring pool

✔ Learn the skills that will save businesses money in reduced energy, water and waste!

Designed for mobile learning, the SFP Level 1 course combines inspiring videos, challenging quizzes and practical resources in bite-sized lessons, covering the essentials in five sections.  Each explores a particular set of choices every operation must make, from menu concepts, sourcing products and equipping kitchens to staff policies and customer communications; and outlines the many opportunities to embed future-proof policies and solutions into those options.

What students are saying about the SFP Student Edition:

“Great course, well produced and very inspiring. Loved the videos!”

“I understand sustainability in a deeper and more comprehensive way.”

“This course has inspired me to reduce my footprint and improve on sustainable practices.”

The SFP Level 1 Student Edition is available for individuals or groups:

Individual Student: $49 + HST

Groups (30+) for Culinary/Hospitality Programs: Starting at $949 + HST 

Take advantage of a Special 20% Introductory Discount Until June 2021

Visit SFPcertificate.ca for more information or to register.

Meet: Plastic Free Blue Bayfield

In 1998, a group of citizens responded to concerns about the quality of the water in their river and lake, resulting in the formation of FRIENDS OF THE BAYFIELD RIVER (FoBR). Since its inception, FoBR has planted hundreds of trees along the length of the Bayfield River, organized annual beach cleanups, restored riverbanks, lobbied all levels of government and worked with sister organizations along the coastline to raise awareness of the threats to their waters. FoBR was instrumental in having ultra violet water treatment added to the Clinton sewage system.

In 2005, FoBR became alarmed with plastic debris found during cleanup, much of it single-use water bottles. At the time, the Council of Canadians introduced the Blue Community Project. This project asked municipalities to acknowledge water as a human right, end the distribution of single-use bottled water and denounce the privatization of this resource. FoBR sought and received the support of 40 village organizations. As a result of this support, Bayfield is one of many worldwide communities, including Paris France, Zurich, Switzerland and many Ontario towns that are BLUE COMMUNiTIES. 2500 refillable bottles have been distributed and with the help of sponsors, five refill stations can be found in the village. Over 30,000 refills have been undertaken at these sites.

Recent Studies of the Great Lakes indicate that there are more than twice the pieces of plastics per square km in the Greats than in the oceans (225,000), – (440,000). This figure hastened the then Blue Community to join groups around the world intent on changing attitudes towards single use plastics. In the UK and throughout Europe, towns and villages have joined the campaign organized by the Surfers Against Sewage that is based in St Agnes, Cornwall. The Cornish coast and indeed the coastlines throughout the UK and Europe, were awash in plastics. These communities thus became part of the PLASTIC FREE COMMUNITIES project that now numbers 500.

Over 80% of Bayfield eateries (and growing number of retailers) now have committed to eliminate all single use plastics and polystyrene. This is just the beginning.

Thank you to the residents of Blue Bayfield for your leadership on plastic advocacy and awareness!

LEAF support UN's Clean Seas campaign

LEAF is proud to announce that we have agreed to support the UN’s Clean Seas campaign by continuing our commitment to tackling the plastic pollution problem. In June, we launched our Plastic-Free Dining Challenge, asking restaurants to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics, and earlier this year we launched our criteria version 4.0, which places a heavier emphasis on eliminating single-use plastics and requires all LEAF certified facilities eliminate plastic straws, bags, stir sticks and sandwich pokes, with requirements getting more stringent at each level.

Do your part to reduce plastic pollution - sign up for the Plastic-Free Dining Challenge! 

And sign up for the Clean Seas campaign here: http://www.cleanseas.org/take-action

LEAF launches Plastic-Free Dining Challenge

Photo by Placebo365/iStock / Getty Images

June 1, LEAF will launch our Plastic-Free Dining Challenge - a campaign aimed at addressing the use of single-use plastics in the foodservice industry and actively working to reduce them.

Plastics are entering our oceans at an alarming rate. According to Ocean Wise, an astonishing 86 per cent of all plastic packaging is used only once then discarded. It can take an estimated 400 or more years for plastics to degrade in the environment, meaning a large percentage of every peice that has ever been created, still remains. Read more here.

With the incredible success of recent movements like #StrawsSuck and #LastStrawToronto, the time is now to build on this momentum and look at ways to further reduce plastic pollution. We are asking you to join us in tackling the plastic pollution problem!

Restaurants and Foodservice facilities: Sign up here to participate in LEAF’s Plastic-Free Dining Challenge!

Not a restaurant? Encourage your favourite restaurant to join us! 

Moment on the lips, forever in our midst: an epidemic of single use plastic

Photo by lindsay_imagery/iStock / Getty Images

Six years ago, while visiting the University of Guelph and their Sustainable Restaurant Program (UGSRP), I first heard the term “straws suck”. Bruce McAdams, UGSRP’s co-creator and sustainable hospitality expert, and I were discussing the issue with plastic straws, when he said he wanted to have t-shirts made that said “Straws suck” to build awareness. The phrase was was clever, and it was accurate.  

It has only been the last couple of years though, that awareness of the issue has grown and a slow rebellion against single-use disposable plastics is forming. Local and federal governments are taking steps to eliminate these sources of plastic pollution, such as implementing plastic bag, straw and micro bead bans and using Canada’s G7 Presidency to encourage other countries to take action such as a plastics charter. Canada has also joined the United Nation’s CleanSeas Campaign. 

“With approximately 8 million tonnes of plastic ending up in the ocean every year, the CleanSeas campaign is working with governments, the private sector and the general public to phase out the production and consumption of single-use plastics and microbeads within the next five years. If no action is taken, there could be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050.” (Source). 

Where government leadership is lagging behind, non-profit organizations like Ocean Wise  and Surfrider and consumer-based movements are working to bring awareness to the issue. 

 

Why the attack on plastics?

Image courtesy of pixabay.com

Resource intensive, used for only a brief amount of time, and then discarded to live out an eternity in a landfill or oceans, single-use, disposable plastics don’t make sense. According to Ocean Wise, an astonishing 86 per cent of all plastic packaging is used only once then discarded. It can take an estimated 400 or more years for plastics to degrade in the environment, meaning a large percentage of every peice that has ever been created, still remains. 

It is estimated that we throw out 57 million plastics straws per day in Canada. Plastic bags (produce and grocery), coffee lids and plastic bottles and caps are also among the top plastic items that are consumed and discarded almost immediately. This culture of convenience has created a literal sea of plastic pollution. It is estimated that 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans every year. The now infamous North Pacific Gyre, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, occupies an area that is twice the size of Texas. According to the UNESCO, Plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals.

“For sea birds and larger marine creatures like turtles, dolphins and seals, the danger comes from being entangled in plastic bags and other debris, or mistaking plastic for food. Turtles cannot distinguish between plastic bags and jellyfish, which can be part of their diet. Plastic bags, once consumed, cause internal blockages and usually result in death.” -

But, despite these major issues, plastics have become part of our lives and, in some ways, (yes I’ll say it, and cringe as I do) have made it better. Working in hospitals, I know plastics are everywhere. Plastic IV and medication bags deliver life-saving medications and improve sterility for patients who are at high risk for deadly infections, and plastic breathing tubes keep people alive when they are critically ill. Yes, plastics can serve a vital purpose that we have no adequate replacement for in the present. But whether it’s useful or not, the evidence is clear: our planet and wildlife simply cannot handle the amount of plastic that we currently produce and dispose of.

Let's talk solutions

Unfortunately, we will probably never be entirely rid of plastics. However, we can and absolutely should do everything we can to decrease our use and get away from the convenience-centric mindset that is contributing to the mass amount of plastic pollution.

REDUCE

Health care aside, there are many industries that can significantly reduce or even eliminate plastics altogether right now (excessive plastic packaging comes to mind). Straws and bags are the target today, but all single-use and disposable plastics are on the chopping block. As consumers, we can become more aware of our own plastic consumption, refuse items that don’t meet our standards, and ask that companies provide better alternatives.

FIND ALTERNATIVES and INNOVATE

These two really go together. There will always be people who want their convenience and a even a need or desire for plastic-like material. We need innovation to find suitable alternatives for plastic materials that won’t end up polluting the environment and don’t result in harmful micro plastics as they breakdown. There are many companies that are developing innovative solutions to replace plastics, and even keep some or all of the convenience that we’ve become accustomed to. Sometimes, the solution may be painfully simple, such as going back to the way things were - e.g. milk and beverages in glass bottles.

LEGISLATION

Putting the onus on companies who produce these plastics to find ways to properly collect and manage them, and taxing those that don’t comply, may provide an incentive to reduce their reliance on them. Better recycling options for plastics that are, for now, unavoidable. 

CLEANUP THE MESS WE’VE MADE

Lastly, while we focus on reducing further plastic pollution, a group of brilliant engineers, researchers and scientists can develop plans to clean up the plastics that are already in the oceans. Organizations like The Ocean Cleanup are working on just that.  

This is the beginning of LEAF’s renewed focus on plastics. Version 4.0 of the LEAF criteria places a heavier emphasis on reducing and eliminating single use plastics. Stay tuned for more exciting initiatives to address plastic pollution in the coming months. 

If you're a restaurant or foodservice operator, contact us to get involved. 

Janine Windsor
President & Founder, LEAF