London Clubs International / Press and Media / Food For Thought
London Clubs International makes their restaurants Carbon Neutral while committing to donating 25k trees to the world's poorest communities through United Nations backed scheme.
The Green Earth Appeal, one of only 48 tree planting partners to the United Nations Environment Programme, has been working for 5 months with London Clubs International who has successfully piloted the Food For Thought initiative within their Linen restaurant, within Manchester 235 casino. Food For Thought plants a tree for every bill which is presented to its diners. Just 99p is added to a table's bill to cover the cost of this single tree. This week LCI is rolling out the initiative nationwide to all restaurants within their eleven UK casinos, which will soon include The Playboy Casino in Mayfair and James Martin's new restaurant at Alea Casino in Leeds.
Since September 2010, London Clubs International's Linen Restaurant at Manchester 235 has planted over 3000 trees, effectively offsetting the carbon footprint of all the meals they have served since they joined Green Earth Appeals Food For Thought. Few diners realise that every meal has a carbon footprint of about 25 kgs and a tree will offset 750 kgs in its lifetime. The benefits of London Clubs International's tree planting commitment are twofold; through the absorption of the carbon associated with the production, transportation and preparation of the meals served within the restaurant and on a global level they are supporting some of the poorest communities in the developing world. The majority of the trees planted through LCI have been sent to poverty stricken Haiti, giving significant work opportunities to the rural communities dealing with the aftermath of a massive earthquake and the associated disease and lack of food.
The founder of the Green Earth Appeal, Marvin Baker remarked: "We were delighted that London Clubs International agreed to participate in our Food For Thought initiative and have been thrilled with how they and their customers have embraced the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint while helping vulnerable people in need of assistance. We look forward to planting many thousands more trees in 2011 and are excited that the initiative is being rolled out across all LCI's UK venues.
"Recently the word sustainability has been very much over used, however Food For Thought provide a sustainable source of food to the world's poorest people while UK diners enjoy a sustainable Carbon Free Meal in the knowledge that they are key players in raising global consciousness. While many green schemes require self sacrifice we believe that to make carbon reduction and offsetting attractive is to find ways to allow people to participate through their normal activities."
Satinder Bindra Director of Communications for UNEP personally endorsed the scheme, saying "Food for Thought is an outstanding initiative which successfully merges the joy of eating out with the joy of knowledge we are simultaneously giving something back to nourish our planet." The award winning Green Earth Appeal is part of a network which has planted over 1,250,000 trees in Haiti over the past 2 years. The trees serve many purposes, the most significant of which is sustainability, the thousands of fruit trees planted within targeted areas allow the community to feed itself, its livestock and sell surplus fruit generating much needed revenue.
Says Charmian Gunnis, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at London Clubs International: "We are delighted to support this initiative and it is with great pride that we roll the initiative out to all of our other casino based restaurants. The success at Manchester 235's Linen restaurant is something we are excited to replicate across the group., and has indeed given diners...food for thought!
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