Michelin has abolished its Green Star environmental award in an embarrassing reversal, to the dismay of almost 40 recipients in the UK.
Confirmation of the decision emerged this week despite an earlier denial from the tyre men – and without any communication with the restaurants concerned. They will apparently have to cease displaying the credential by the end of the year.
The lack of explanation has left observers wondering whether the move was motivated by a Trumpian reversal of green policies, or was in response to accusations of “greenwashing” given that the Green Star was awarded without any checks from inspectors.
Making matters worse, Michelin says it is replacing the Green Star with a woo-woo-sounding ‘global editorial initiative’ called “Mindful Voices” which will credit “those pioneering new approaches in the fields of gastronomy, hospitality and wine” – a move “designed to better capture the unique character of these three expressions of the art of living and to move beyond local borders”.
Michelin introduced the Green Star, which looked more like a clover leaf than a celestial being, in 2020, awarding seven new Green Stars in the UK as recently as February this year.
The Green Star’s demise came as no surprise to the Sustainable Restaurant Association, whose CEO Juliane Caillouette Noble said its days were numbered as soon as the EU adopted anti-greenwashing legislation to protect European consumers from misleading environmental claims.
She says: “The fact of the matter is that the Green Star was never designed or positioned to deliver real change in our industry through tangible, transparent or on going action. We believe that rather than interpreting the loss of the green star as a move away from diner interest in sustainability, we should see this as an important shift towards an era of greater accountability. Sustainability is no longer a mere ‘nice to have’; now and into the future, restaurants will need to deliver real, measurable change.
“This is what we have been doing with the Food Made Good Standard for over 15 years. This practical tool is designed especially for businesses serving food, and with the explicit goal of helping the sector, as a whole, evolve into one that is socially progressive and environmentally restorative.”
Among the UK’s Green Star holders is Moor Hall in Lancashire, which tops this year’s Harden’s 100 list as the best restaurant in the country. It devotes a page of its website to the Green Star, with chef-patron Mark Birchall saying: “Sustainability is part of our philosophy at Moor Hall. Our menus are inspired by the local surroundings and home-grown seasonal ingredients. We let the local character shine through in of our dishes and we don’t compromise on the health of the planet to do it. If we can’t source anything from the Hall estate or from our garden, it will come from a network of local suppliers that we know personally and try to visit whenever we can.”
Knepp Wilding Kitchen, on a pioneering rewilding estate in West Sussex, received a Green Star just three months ago and chef-director Ned Burrell said he was disappointed to lose the award: “We’re really proud of getting it,” he added.
Also disappointed was Piers Milburn, of Pythouse Kitchen Garden in Wiltshire, which won a Green Star last year. He said: “We think it’s quite irresponsible for Michelin to build a platform for businesses to thrive from for an accolade and then whisk it away. We were enormously proud of it and now we feel let down by them.”
