Carbon neutrality has been something I have felt passionate about for many years. We do what we can with small things really. My wife and I have a largely vegetarian diet, we use washable nappies for our newborn son and we do our best to recycle what we can at home.
When we embarked on this journey at Super Loco, we realised that reducing our environmental impact was a progressive goal that was not going to happen overnight. We felt that offsetting our carbon footprint was something actionable that would reap immediate impact, while requiring concurrent efforts to reduce our overall environmental footprint with time.
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One of the problems we faced however, was finding some time across the company to work on these initiatives, amidst running a day-to-day business. That was solved by blocking time in our diaries to regroup, ensuring the conversation was never left aside for too long. Out of the challenges we faced, the knowledge gap was probably the most difficult — it is a specialised domain that can be daunting to those just starting out with sustainability. My advice would be to seek help — there is an abundance of people who are more than ready and willing to offer support.
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Most people are aware that animal-sourced products have a big impact, a clear example of which is meat. However, the impact of cheese is quite startling, given that it is a by-product of raising cattle and coupled with the fact that our Monterey Jack cheese does travel a long way from Monterey in the United States of America!
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It was a happy coincidence for Super Loco that Green Steps Group had a forestry project nearby in Borneo. Our first and foremost objective however, was to support a project with total transparency on where funds were being channelled towards. This is a top priority to us, as people place a lot of trust in us in how their money is used, however small the amount might be. Green Steps Group’s “tree-tracing” technology remains the most compelling we have seen in regards to being radically transparent.
Green Steps Group charges us a price of $6, which we have passed on without adding any markup. This covers the cost of raising the tree saplings — specifically in paying local farmers to plant the sapling, conduct frequent checks on their growth, implementing the technology to photograph and geo-locate the sapling, as well as conducting annual maintenance checks to ensure their survival.
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Our top priority in ingredient sourcing at Super Loco is taste quality, freshness as well as the method of production. In addition, we love supporting our regional communities, and so we work a lot with local suppliers, especially with our vegetable produce that is mostly sourced from quality farms in Malaysia. Our barramundi fish is sourced from Kuhlbarra, an open-sea fishing farm based in Singapore.
We decided to introduce more vegetarian and vegan dishes to our menu to help reduce carbon footprint. One in particular is the Eggplant Torta, a lunchtime faourite that is quite common in Mexico. During our R&D stage — amidst all the chaos of creating and writing recipes — the word “almond” somehow got added into the recipe for the Achar. Needless to say, it was made with almonds in it. After we tasted it and realised it was not supposed to be there, we decided that it was an excellent addition to the dish.
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Plant-based proteins often sadly cop a reputation for being bland and lacking texture, which we think is not necessarily the case; seasoning is so important to any ingredient, whether plant or animal-based. With that in mind, we marinated tofu with achiote spice, battered and baked it in crispy quinoa to add an extra crunch to our new vegan-friendly dinner taco, the Quinoa Achiote Tofu Taco.
We are also happy to note that the Roast Pumpkin and Corn Enchilada — a new dinner main on our menu — has a carbon footprint of 0.31kg as compared to a cab ride of five kilometres, which works out to be 0.8kg.
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Through our initiatives, our main goal is to hopefully influence as many businesses and consumers as we possibly can to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle whether at work or in their personal lives. If we can do that, then we can magnify this positive impact substantially. Yes, we are working on a big campaign this year to engage consumers and the rest of the industry at large — we will definitely share more details as soon as we have more concrete plans!
Have a great meal, plant a tree and click here to catch up with our April 2021 issue.
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