Omar Shihab, founder and chief sustainability officer of BOCA restaurant, is a versatile knowledgeable, who has taken on various roles within the hospitality alternate. He has led a crew of knowledgeable cooks, managers, designers and experts to make distinctive hospitality concepts within the Gulf. A passionate indicate for sustainability, local sourcing and modern eating experiences, Shihab has launched loads of sustainability initiatives at BOCA, alongside side extinguish discount and native sourcing. He has been identified for his efforts, a success the Gault&Millau UAE 2022 Sustainability Champion award, and can also be an advisor to the UAE Restaurant Community and represents Food Made Correct model UAE, Thriving Options and Azraq.
What steps are you taking to scale again food extinguish on your restaurant?
Decreasing extinguish in intelligent areas is obligatory for every moral and environmental reasons, and it could per chance per chance per chance also additionally lead to critical charge financial savings, which is why many intelligent areas and inns within the UAE are enforcing extinguish discount methods. On the opposite hand, the restaurant alternate has a long approach to head.
At BOCA, we’re dedicated to actively tackling extinguish, because it contributed to 5 p.c of our total carbon emissions in 2021, in step with our most modern carbon emission figures. Now we get formalized the role of a extinguish officer to bear definite accurate extinguish separation and measurement across six categories. After measuring our extinguish, we centered on decreasing the ideally suited categories of extinguish by weight and carbon emissions, equivalent to weak cooking oil, glass and natural extinguish.
We maximize ingredient utilization in our dishes; as an illustration, skins are weak for seasoning, cheeses are made of immediate expiry milk, trimmings are grew to alter into into aspect dishes, vegetable wastewater weak in cocktails and syrups made of leftover pulp are weak as a garnish. Now we get incorporated these practices subtly into our menus.
As successfully as, now we get an adaptable inventory system severe to minimizing extinguish, which we complement with composting within the community. Our chums at The Smash Lab score all our natural extinguish at the discontinuance of day to day. They diverted 1,369 kgs of extinguish from landfills within the final month by myself, combating an estimated 1,573ppm in carbon dioxide emissions and growing 18 kg of compost.
Furthermore, we dispose our weak cooking oil by Fair Fuels, which could also be a critical diversion from landfills.
By speaking our extinguish discount efforts by dapper menu copyrighting, we hope to scale again food extinguish and mitigate its affect on the atmosphere, alongside side greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Construct you source your substances within the community?
Sustainability is the muse on which BOCA is built. We get within the local inventive minds and space out to make a most modern, awake establishment that’s “future willing” and can compete with any world-class realizing. We prioritize sourcing seafood from the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, promoting local create, decreasing our carbon footprint and supporting local fishermen. We realized our affect on the atmosphere and began to adapt our sustainability efforts. This day, our restaurant stands on 5 sustainability pillars: championing local create, proactive and awake extinguish management, valuing belongings, reporting carbon emissions and sustainability ratings and sustainability for our neighborhood.
Championing local create has forever been our critical priority. We showcase the richness of local create, source straight far from fishermen in Dubai’s Waterfront Fish & Vegetables Market and work with local natural and hydroponic farms in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and the northern Emirates. We source up to 80 p.c of our fish and seafood within the community or domestically, whereas up to 40 p.c of our fruits and greens are from local and regional farmers and producers. Our menu aspects the UAE’s local oysters, Dibba Bay and UAE’s native desolate tract plant life. We developed our savor illustrated data to highlight the ideally suited of local and homemade create.
Basically based on our sustainability efforts, BOCA’s procurement policy formalizes and standardizes our buying requirements and practices. We prioritize substances grown within the community, adopted by regional create, and bear definite traceability and honest price to every person fervent on the procurement process.
Which sustainable practices bear that you need to even get in popularity for energy and water conservation?
Step one is to popularity extraordinary practices of energy financial savings in popularity, which will more than doubtless be as straightforward as switching the lights off after we leave the restaurant. The second is buying or changing original tools and fixtures with low-energy consumption ones and guaranteeing tools is maintained to attach far from energy loss.
In November 2021, we dedicated to the exhaust of 100% renewable energy via the record voltaic vitality generated by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Describe voltaic Park.
Furthermore, with the relieve of Ingredient Six Consultancy, we received worldwide renewable energy certificates from DEWA’s Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Describe voltaic Park, permitting us to make exhaust of 100% dapper energy. By buying and redeeming these certificates, we can essentially tell that we’re powered by renewable energy.
This purchase has helped us minimize roughly 75 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, ensuing in a nearly 20 p.c decrease in our overall carbon footprint, as obvious by our carbon footprint calculations.
At BOCA, we’re devoted to investing in some unspecified time in the future and supporting the UAE’s 2030 greenhouse gasoline emissions discount objectives, reasonably than completely specializing within the backside line. Achieving a 20 p.c discount in our carbon footprint became a mighty start for us, and we undercover agent forward to doing extra to relieve our planet.
What are the ideally suited challenges you’re dealing with?
Over the past year, we’ve been on a mission to share our sustainable practices within the community, domestically and globally. I’ve had the privilege of participating in circularity workshops with the UAE govt, advising and participating with UAE Restaurants Community, Azraq, Thriving Options and partnering with Food Made Correct model and the Sustainable Restaurant Affiliation. Accurate by it all, I’ve been managing BOCA and advancing our sustainability agenda. It’s been a anxious but rewarding experience, and I’m contented with the growth we’ve made.
On the opposite hand, we’ve confronted our honest proportion of obstacles and realized treasured classes alongside the manner. Listed below are a few areas the put we’re forever refining and bettering:
Our extinguish management practices need fixed enchancment and monitoring, despite having formal processes and a dedicated Smash Officer role. We’re forever correcting and directing ourselves to scale again extinguish across all categories.
- We’re dedicated to bettering gender diversity among our group, as ladies presently bear up less than 40 p.c of our crew.
- The restaurant industry within the city is present process intense competitors and a shift in buyer quiz. We have to proceed pivoting and evolving our choices to meet the quiz for experiential eating and nightlife.
- Managing a public-dealing with role within the restaurant and a definite ability sooner or later of frequent industry hours is anxious. We gaze that sustainability is a precise trip, and we don’t get your complete solutions but. Transformations grab time and energy.
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