Making sustainable food choices is one of the easiest ways to reduce one’s carbon footprint. To highlight the issue, Neste has developed the Zero Menu, a delicious way to cut emissions. The menu has been developed together with Jonas Svensson, the renowned chef behind restaurants Miss Voon and Mr Voon, who took into account not only what is on the plate, but also how it is produced and transported and even came up with creative ways to minimize waste.
“The growing interest in food culture has really put chefs and restaurants in the spotlight. We have a huge influence on how people eat, and I think it is time to use our influence to build a more sustainable future,” Jonas Svensson, the chef behind the Zero Menu, explains.
The Zero Menu will be served on Zero Island Lidö in Swedish archipelago from Midsummer onwards. Zero Island is an initiative, where Neste focuses on finding sustainable solutions for building a fossil free future for an island.
“From gluten-free to vegan, a growing number of people are following special diets. But we think there is room for one more – one that is good for the planet and promotes sustainability. With the Zero Menu and Zero Label we want to make it easier for people to make responsible choices.” says Sirpa Tuomi, Neste’s Marketing Director.
What is Zero Menu?
Food production is responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. On an individual level, one of the easiest ways to lower one’s personal carbon footprint is to favour sustainable food options. One widely recognized source of emissions is livestock, but transportation, packaging, storing, processing and the energy used to cook the food also cause significant amount of emissions. As the world population continues to grow, so does the consumption of food.
Zero Menu was created to answer this challenge. The menu is designed to cause minimal amount of fossil emissions, taking into account all possible sources of emissions from the field to the table: the ingredients on the menu are sustainable and produced locally, transported with lower fossil emissions, cooked by using a minimum amount of energy and without food waste.
Zero Vacation
Neste, recently introduced Zero Vacation, part of Neste’s Zero Island project, where people can enjoy their vacations swimming, staying in the beautiful zero cabin Nolla and sampling delicious dishes from the specially designed, sustainable Zero Menu.
“Fossil-free future requires changes in our everyday lives, and in our mindset. As part of Zero Island project, we wanted to show people they can have a world-class vacation with as little emissions as possible and without flying to the other side of the world,” says Marketing Director Sirpa Tuomi from Neste.
From accommodation to food, every aspect of the Zero Vacations is designed to produce as little emissions as possible. The guests will be staying in the acclaimed Zero Cabin, Nolla, an Airbnb favourite featured on Lonely Planet and Dezeen among others. The Robin Falck designed cabin is built from sustainable materials and comes with minimal environmental impact both in terms of emissions and the concrete impact on nature. Tapping into the staycation trend, the Zero Vacations are designed to let guests experience a simpler way of life and nature in its purest form.
