Pernille Koppang - ASIA Aker Brygge

ASIA Aker Brygge are pioneering sustainability in the food industry. They have integrated sustainability into the core of their operations, and are the first restaurant in the world to be verified by the UN through the Climate Neutral Now initiative. In collaboration with CHOOOSE, they have reduced more than 7000 tons of CO2, and are currently working on sustainable supply chains with FactLines. 

ASIA Aker Brygge has been a member of S-HUB since May 2018 and is one of the initiators of S-FOOD, which is becoming a leading cluster for sustainable food in Norway. We had the pleasure of talking to Pernille Koppang, who is the Sustainability Director and Operations Manager of ASIA Aker Brygge. ​

Who is your sustainability role model?
I remember reading Gro Harlem Brundtland’s definition of sustainable development in my high school textbook. Today, the definition is still a fundamental guideline for how we should live. On one hand, it seems so obvious and simple; we must manage the earth’s resources in a manner enabling future generations to benefit from them too. On the other hand, this is an incredibly large responsibility and can seem completely impossible to achieve. Norwegians’ resource consumption amounts to 3.5 globes annually, so we have a long way to go.

How did you become interested in sustainability?
Based on personal interest, some of my colleagues and I started to investigate how ASIA Aker Brygge could become more sustainable. A core aspect of sustainability is to properly utilise the resources we have. We therefore decided to start with ourselves, and have now cut out straws and all other single-use disposable items, replaced our previously imported water with filtered tap water and developed an extensive vegan menu, as some of our measures.

It was important for us to incorporate sustainability into the core of our operations, so we also became part of S-HUB who helped us develop a sustainable business strategy. Becoming part of the S-HUB community opened many doors, and provided us with inspiration, knowledge and a network for sustainability.
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What has ASIA Aker Brygge achieved so far?
We have focused on developing a profile that is 100 percent transparent. There has been a lot of talk about how positive nudging can encourage sustainable consumption. Although this is important, I think we need honest and clear communication, so that consumers themselves have enough knowledge to make informed and sustainable decisions. 

Each year, we produce a sustainability status report where we summarise and analyse the impact of our activities that year. This is a valuable way to measure how our actions, spanning from which ingredients we purchase to how we choose to word our menu, can enable customers to make more sustainable choices. 

Furthermore, we are very proud to be the first restaurant to receive recognition from the UN through the Climate Neutral Now-initiative. We actively try to reduce our footprint, and simultaneously compensate for both our customers’ and our own emissions. 

Moving onward, what are your plans and goals?
In collaboration with FactLines, we are analyzing our own supply chain and our suppliers’ supply chains, to ensure that they are sustainable and ethical. Customers have a lot of power to significantly influence their suppliers, so it is important to actually use this power as a tool to create sustainable supply chains.

Moreover, we are collaborating with S-HUB to develop S-FOOD. When we started off, we neither had competency nor backgrounds related to sustainability. A lot of our work has therefore been based on “learning by doing”. Knowing where to start and who to approach has been a challenge. The reason why we started S-FOOD was to solve this challenge, by creating a place for small and medium sized businesses with limited resources to acquire knowledge and share their experiences. Our aim is to positively influence restaurants and other key players in the food industry, and create an understanding of sustainability that goes beyond organic and locally produced food. 

What are the greatest challenges for the food industry?
Food waste. In Norway we import a lot of food, and are spoiled for choice. Having all these options means that we generate more food waste, so this is something that we need to become aware of and work on.

What are the greatest opportunities for the food industry? 
Communication and collaboration. I hope the industry can come together and take responsibility to find the best solutions. This is why S-FOOD wants to make a road-map for “how to be as sustainable as possible in Norway”. 

Any advice for other companies?
I would encourage people in the industry to be more curious about how they can contribute. For example, we Eco-Lighthouse certified ourselves last year, which was a valuable exercise to map out our own efforts. I would also recommend companies in the food industry to join “Kutt Matsvinn” to use food more efficiently, and to join S-FOOD to create new collaborations, access information and network. And most importantly, to save the world. 

Author:
​Tuva Luna Bergan Gulli is an intern at S-HUB. ​She is a Politics, Philosophy & Law student at King's College London, where she has studied sustainable development, environmental protection and energy transitions.