South African restaurants are invited to enter the inaugural Eat Out Woolworths Sustainability Award, the winner of which will be announced at the 2016 Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards later this year. This new award is aimed at recognising restaurants that are implementing practices that are environmentally and socially responsible in an effort to be more sustainable as well as being cognisant of the importance of higher animal welfare. 

“We recognise that achieving sustainability is an ongoing process, but we want to showcase restaurants that are making great strides to promote good practices,” says Eat Out editor Abigail Donnelly.

The Eat Out Woolworths Sustainability Award judging panel is independent from that of the Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards. The panel consists of Abigail Donnelly of Eat Out, Pavitray (Pavs) Pillay of WWF-SASSI, Lynsay Sampson of Fairtrade South Africa, Sonia Mountford of Eategrity and Karen Welter of the Longtable Project. Eat Out has worked with these partners to develop robust criteria for evaluating restaurants for this award. The winner will be the restaurant that best meets these criteria.

Says Justin Smith, group head of sustainability, Woolworths Holdings: “We live in an age where it’s imperative for restaurants to be conscious of their environmental and social impact. The aim of the Eat Out Woolworths Sustainability Award is to inspire readers and members of the food industry to reduce their impact, to create greater awareness about responsible sourcing and eating, and to reward a restaurant that has shown true commitment in this regard.”

To enter, restaurants are invited to complete an entry form, which lists the criteria against which they will be judged. All criteria need to have been met for six months or longer in order for a restaurant to qualify. Interested restaurants can download the entry form here https://newmediadigital.co.za/eatout/woolworths/sustainability-awards.pdf or contact Julie Potgieter at Julie.Potgieter@newmediapub.co.za or 071 375 2220 to request an entry form. The closing date for entries is 15 August 2016.