Hello fellow friends of Djurgården!
It’s fantastic to finally be up and running again after a long period of shutdown. It is also wonderful to see Djurgården being filled with laughter and crowds of people again. We now have every opportunity to restart and to once again address the important work on sustainability that we started together before the pandemic.
The past year has given us the opportunity to stop and reflect. Gröna Lund has spread joy to children and adults for 138 years and we plan to do so for at least another 138 years. That is why we must think long-term and sustainably about everything we do. A motto we have had for several years is “to make the biggest possible impact and the smallest possible imprint”. But what is our imprint? To gain insight into our current situation, and the imprint we make, we began to measure our climate impact back in 2016. We were able to quickly establish that with about 1.4 million guests in the park each year, our climate footprint is largest when it comes to food. How can we impact that? All guests want to eat, and we surely want to offer a great food experience. There are several ways to influence this, from what we choose to put on the menus, the ingredients we buy, how we present and offer the various dishes to how we handle and use the ingredients in a way that is causing as little waste as possible. We have chosen to focus a little extra on the climate footprint related to food and food management in our sustainability work since this is where we can make the biggest impact, all in line with our motto.
For example, we only choose organic milk, cream, sugar, pizza crusts and pancakes, which are the most sourced products in our restaurants. We have also expanded the vegetarian and vegan options in our eateries and restaurants year on year. Did you know, for example, that we have an incredibly tasty vegan caramel milkshake, vegan langos or fresh vegetarian spring rolls? We also make sure to draw our guests’ attention to the vegetarian options a little extra through classic “nudging”, where we highlight our green dishes in different ways on our menus.
For many years, we have only bought poultry and pork from Swedish farms and if we choose suppliers from abroad, they must meet carefully set criteria. Among other things, the animals’ natural needs must have been taken into account, the animals must primarily be grass-fed and the use of antibiotics for preventive purposes are not allowed.
Once we have purchased and prepared our raw ingredients, it is of the utmost importance to make use of as much of them as we can. That’s why we started the “Upcycle Challenge” – a project to increase awareness of food waste as well as increase the competence in our kitchens. All our chefs have undergone training with Paul Svensson, a master when it comes to minimizing food waste. The training was followed by a competition where the one who reduced their food waste the most won a prize. Our aim is not to come up with pointers and bans but to create joy and motivation around reducing food waste.
Today, our chefs voluntarily share leftover ingredients between the different restaurant kitchens and come up with their own creative solutions, such as using tomatoes that have gone soft for pizza sauce or dried bread for croutons in salads. Everyone measures their food waste daily, both in restaurants and in food kiosks. The goal is to reduce waste as much as possible and during this year we will not only get a total figure of the waste, but also be able to see in detail which type of food generates the most waste. In this way we can make an impact directly in the kitchens.
Back to the past year of lockdown. As we continued to measure our carbon footprint even during a period of stagnant operations, we now have a picture of the climate impact we have with no guests in the park, i.e., our base imprint. This insight increases our understanding of the impact of various guest activities in the park and it will be very exciting to continue working with this information to see what actually makes a difference going forward. This is something we will dedicate the autumn to as well as to continue the work with reducing our climate impact. If you have any input or thoughts , you are more than welcome to contact me! Our sustainability work will of course never finish but rather keep developing over time. At least for another 138 years.
Carin Broryd
Sustainability and Purchasing manager
