Yunnan province in Southwest China recently issued the country’s first local standard for green catering, as reported by Sina on October 26. Yunnan Administration for Market Regulation will set a green channel to make sure the guidance is distributed to over 220,000 catering companies in the province.

Green catering refers to economical, environmental-friendly, reliable, and healthy catering services, with the aim of maximizing resource efficiency and minimizing waste and environmental impact. In 2018, Ministry of Finance, NDRC, and other seven central authorities jointly released guidelines for the development of green catering, in order to build an energy-saving and economical development model in the catering sector. The first target is to form a green catering standards system, including national, local, industrial, and corporate standards, for the management and evaluation of green catering services.

Moreover, the measures support catering enterprises to establish chain operations in places such as communities, schools, hospitals, and traffic hubs for convenience services; and set up a green food supply chain from production and shipment to offer in outlets, thereby reducing the use of disposable items. The guidance sets goals of preliminarily establishing a standards system for green catering, fostering 5,000 green restaurants, and decreasing over 20% of catering waste and energy consumption for every RMB10,000 in operating income by 2022.

In compliance with national guidelines, Yunnan’s local standards also specifies requirements of green design, green kitchens, green services, and more for green catering enterprises, as well as reducing food waste and securing food safety. Following Yunnan, it is expected that other provinces and cities will also release such standards.

Fast food, beverage, and other restaurant operators in the country will need to account for and adhere to this and similar guidelines and reflect such efforts in their CSR reports. For instance, after MoF issued guidelines in 2018, McDonald’s started to pilot straw-free lids and not actively providing straws in ten Beijing outlets from November 1, 2018. Most recently, Starbucks announced it will stop offering plastic straws in Shanghai and Shenzhen initially, and then expand the effort nationwide later this year.

Reference:

https://finance.sina.com.cn/china/dfjj/2020-10-26/doc-iiznezxr8220996.shtml

http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2019-04/24/c_1124407151.htm

http://www.mofcom.gov.cn/article/zhengcejd/bj/201806/20180602752344.shtml