How to make Sustainability Sustainable: three bartenders share their strategies
Sustainable is a word both trendy and abused, yet true. Trendy because it’s cool to be sustainable, abused when used as a marketing catchword without action behind it (greenwashing), and true because we do need to create systems that respect people and the environment, within gastronomy and beyond.
As June 18 is Sustainable Gastronomy Day, The Cocktail Balance talked to three bartenders who are walking the walk, creating great drinks with sustainable practices, and sharing those practices with others. Though each is based on a different continent - Europe, Oceania, and North America - the principles and solutions they have incorporated are applicable everywhere, no matter where on the globe.
Máté Szabo is founder of Elysian Budapest, where embracing sustainability is about common sense and is the value by which all their work is ordered.
Andrea Marseglia is founder of Teresa Cocktail Bar and the New Zealand Bar Convention. Andrea is a slow drinks advocate, at Teresa using ingredients both foraged and grown at their own farm.
Lacey Roberts is head bartender at Michelin-star Published on Main in Vancouver, Canada, (No9 of Canada’s Top100 restaurants), founder of BarSide Gatherings, dedicated to creating community and sustainable change, and top Canadian of the Torres Brandy Zero Challenge ‘25, a global competition for sustainable projects in the hospitality industry.
No money, no honey
For sustainability to be, well, sustainable, it needs to be financially feasible, a point brought up by Máté in his seminar Rediscovery: Sustainability or Common Sense? presented at Mirror Hospitality Expo.
Now, he elaborates, “Achieving profitability is the paramount objective. Sustainability cannot be attained solely through fear-mongering tactics or alarming images of desolate soil and charred forests. This approach is akin to smoking cessation, where individuals do not stop due to health concerns but rather because smoking becomes increasingly uncomfortable, costly, and loses its allure.
We must adopt the example of sustainability and promote the notion that it can generate revenue and contribute to goal fulfillment. This approach will motivate businesses and individuals alike to embrace sustainability.”
Eco and margin friendly
So, what step towards sustainability has made the most positive financial impact for bars?
At Elysian, Máté shares, “Our cocktail ecosystem, which we’ve developed throughout our operations, is interconnected. The drinks, snacks, and preserves are all linked by ingredients, byproducts, and preservation methods. In a sense, each ingredient has multiple significant moments in its life cycle!
Managing this intricate system is a significant challenge that requires flexibility and creativity. However, it ultimately enables us to keep beverage costs incredibly low compared to the industry average.”
For Andrea, ingredients are also key to sustainable business sense. “One of the most financially impactful steps we took was reimagining our menu around seasonal produce and whole-ingredient usage. By designing drinks that used every part of an ingredient—from husks and skins to pulp and peels—we not only reduced waste but also significantly cut our cost of goods.
Instead of relying on imported or waste-heavy garnishes, we built a creative culture that saw limitations as opportunities. This approach also shortened our supply chain, helping us support local producers while improving margins.”
It’s not only about creating a sustainable menu, though. Lacey highlights the need to educate guests - so that they buy the drinks in the first place. “We have always been a restaurant proud of sourcing locally grown and foraged ingredients. But there comes an expectation for bar programs across the world to offer a wide variety of classics that the guests can get anywhere at any time.
In Canada, we have a short growing season that doesn’t always get hot enough to support the tropical or exotic fruit guests have come to expect in their beverages, which can be hard to translate to a guest that carries expectations of what they deem or desire worthy. As our food tells the story of the biosphere we live in, we have started modeling our cocktail program to do the same, walking the guest through our offerings and unique availability of our region.
This has led to a 80% reduction in citrus usage behind the bar and copious amounts of savings. Citrus doesn’t typically grow in our region, and when it does it is prohibitively expensive. So we take the time to educate our guests on the alternatives that are available locally and have received great feedback about the program.”
Proud achievement
Even though steps towards sustainability can be financially beneficial, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to change and bring in new practices. What step towards sustainability is each bartender most proud of?
For Andrea, it’s changing the mindset of his guests. “We’re most proud of shifting the mindset of our team—and our guests—toward what “luxury” means in hospitality. At Teresa, sustainability isn’t just a back-of-house process; it’s embedded in our storytelling. From house-made ferments and cordials to reusing elements across multiple drinks, we made sustainability a visible, exciting part of the experience. We’re proud that guests came to expect—and celebrate—that their cocktail might contain foraged pine needles or a syrup made from citrus offcuts.”
For Lacey, it’s the process and the creative outcome. “I am definitely proud of the citrus program change and look forward to having a program that uses as minimal amounts of imported products as possible to have an impact on transportation emission reduction, water usage, etc.
But collectively we are working with the incredibly talented chefs we have the opportunity to work beside to create closed loop systems of these local ingredients. Extracting, reclaiming, reducing any and all that we can of these ingredients in multiple and various ways to yield the maximum usage, whether that be the off-cuts, the trims, creating stocks, oleo, juices, etc., we are reducing the waste and associated carbon footprint within the building.
For example, the strawberry ice cream in your dessert compliments the strawberry greenness you taste in your cocktail. The strawberry tops that are cut off in prep are used to create a fermented tea and fortified as a vermouth in the drink. We push both our food and drinks menu to complement each other with sustainability at the forefront.”
On the other hand, Máté feels like sustainability isn’t something to be proud of, although changing the industry is. “It’s challenging to pinpoint a specific reason, but often, I feel like sustainability isn’t something I should be proud of. It’s simply common sense. We shouldn’t be proud because we’re not destroying the world while enjoying delicious cocktails and having a great time. If I must say something, it’s the positive impact and inspiration we create, both locally and globally, for a better hospitality industry.”
The forgotten element
Sustainability is a broad term, with many different aspects. Ingredients, water, and energy usage are commonly highlighted when talking about the subject. For bartenders who strive to be sustainable, what aspects need more attention?
Lacey and Andrea both agree that sustainability as regards people needs to be addressed.
Lacey finds community can both support individuals and help bring about change. “In general, I am a big advocate for community. Meaningful change is not created in isolation, it is through community that collective change can be achieved. I am so passionate about this that I have created an initiative called “BarSide Gatherings” or “BSide” for short (as we stand beside each other behind a bar) that is a community-based sustainable event project. It hosts a myriad of sustainable education, application, and practices while facilitating the expansion and support of local communities.
Higher education correlates with greater sustainability initiatives in communities and by making information accessible and digestible we can raise the floor for everyone, so we can all contribute today to make a better tomorrow.”
Andrea stresses that while sustainable practices in a bar can be praiseworthy, the action of doing it needs to be sustainable. “Labor and time need attention. Sustainable practices often focus on ingredients, but rarely do we talk about the sustainability of the people doing the work. Ferments, batching, foraging—all of these require time, training, and care. We believe the next chapter of sustainability needs to account for the human cost of running “zero-waste” or low-impact bars. Systems that support staff wellbeing and fair compensation are just as crucial as cutting food waste.”
Next steps
As the next chapter of sustainability in the bar industry comes up, the content of that chapter will be formed by bartenders such as these, who take the time to generously share their knowledge with others so that the industry as a whole can improve, one step towards sustainability at a time. From ingredients, staff support, and community, each step takes us closer to a sustainable future.
For further reading, check out our interview with zero-waste chef, teacher, and advocate Vojtech Végh: The Biggest Obstacle to Zero-Waste is Mindset.
For staff support systems and environment, read our two-part interview with Jason-Candid Knüsel of the program Healthy Hospo: mental health for hospitality workers and
specifically how he creates a safe work environment as a manager in gastronomy, Conversations with my staff are paramount.
As well, check out Sustainability in Drinks, an event dedicated to the topic.
