Hilton EdGE chats Bar World of Tomorrow with Noemie Bauer, Sustainable Business Director at Pernod Ricard

Hi, Noemie, thanks for sitting down with us today. It would be great if you could introduce yourself for everybody reading this article.

Hi. I'm Noemie Bauer, Sustainable Business Director for Pernod Ricard, which means that I'm in charge of the strategy in sustainability to agitate and transform the business.

Today we're going to have a chat about the Bar World of Tomorrow. For those reading today who are hearing about the Bar World Of Tomorrow for the first time, can you introduce it for us?

Of course! So, the Bar World Of Tomorrow came from a personal passion. I'm really passionate about cocktails and I think that throughout the world, there are delicious cocktails and great bars.  After seeing so many good initiatives to reuse ingredients, eliminate food waste or limit waste in cocktails bar, I thought that there was a need to talk about these good practices, and, to educate how bars could reduce their impact on the planet.

Climate change is accelerating and we all have a role to play, including those operating or working in bars!

I also realised that bartenders were often missing from sustainability strategies of beverages companies. But, bartenders are so critical, they have an impact operating their bars, but they also are the ones facing guests. So, they have a big influence.  Any good action, that a bartender will do in the bars will have an impact because they can educate the consumer and raise awareness on issues.  So that was really the rationale on why the Bar World of Tomorrow was created.

And what is it concretely?

It all started with a training on sustainable and responsible practises for bar operations, which can be performed online or in-person. Modules cover all aspect of bar operations from the sourcing of ingredients through the knowledge on sustainability of the alcohol brands, to dealing with waste, with ice, with energy and water into the bars.
Also very importantly, the training covers social aspects too, with responsible service and wellbeing, we know that barpersons are working late at night, they're in an industry where the work life balance can be a challenge, especially when people have families, so really taking care of staff is so important. This is a big part of Bar World of Tomorrow.

But now, it is more than a training, it is about a community to share best practices and get started on the journey of transforming bars.  We’re creating new tools, new content, and we're going to share some recipes. We're going to share some tips from bartenders that have done some great sustainability initiatives into their bars.  These will all be hosted in SIP.  We have created a tool which allows bars to know where they are in their Bar World of Tomorrow journey so they can self-assess through a set of questions what they do in terms of waste, ice, sourcing fresh ingredients, … and then get some advice on what the bar could start.

We know that sustainability can look so big, so having some concrete advice on ‘where to start’ and ‘how’ should be very useful and that will be the available on the wider SIP platform shortly.

So the actual training itself - Is that for bar managers or is that for bar team members? Who is the target of this course?

The course is for anyone working in a bar, so bar managers, food & beverage managers and bartenders.

People have different responsibilities within the bar and so there's actions on the service itself for the bartender, but also on the purchase of ingredients. So they're really actions for everyone working in the bar.

How long does it typically take us to do it and to complete the course?

It really depends on the one's interest and maturity already on the topic. Some participants might already have a personal passion about sustainability. So, there may be some questions that they know or information so they can pass through pretty quickly. Some others will be beginners, so they will take longer. I would say between 1:00 to 3:00 hours. But in average, 2 hours.

The course is divided into several modules, so once you have registered you can go back in and you'll start from where you left it. We know that professionals have busy lives, so they can return to it when following the training online. They don't have to do it all at once!

 

So we can find the course on EdApp.  Is there a cost involved? 
No cost involved – the course is offered free of charge to everyone.

And when we finish the course, we get a certificate of completion?
Yes, you get an acknowledgement that you have completed the Bar world of Tomorrow Training.

Bar World of Tomorrow has been available for some years now?

Yes, the Bar World of Tomorrow concept launched in 2019 when we decided to target the bartender audience in our global sustainability strategy.  We did set ourselves a target to reach 10,000 bartenders by 2030 with the programme.

In 2020, Covid hit, and we used this time to develop the online training.  We worked with the Trash Collective a duo of bartenders specialising in sustainable bar practices, and the Sustainable Restaurant Association to create the training and officially made it available in May 2020.

I am proud to tell you that we have trained almost 7,000 bartenders in 3 years!

Wow that's great! After we've done our Bar World of Tomorrow Sustainability training, what would you recommend? Are the next steps, where does it put us on the journey of Knowledge or experience in the world of sustainability in the bar environment?

Sustainability evolves very quickly, in 3 years, we have already updated the online training. New solutions, innovations flourish and great examples do appear every day in bars across the globe. Knowing that, the training is only the first step to embark on the sustainability journey.

One should then continue to inform oneself, speak to other minded-like professionals and be part of a community to continue this journey. We recommend to visit SIP regularly to get more content, sustainability news and to connect with other bartenders on the topic.

And another step after the training is also to self-assess one’s bar status in the Bar World of Tomorrow journey on SIP. Through a set of questions, bar managers can really understand what next steps they should implement in their bars!

And Noemie – is the course available just in English or are there other languages available?

So there are lots of languages available, there’s English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Simplified Chinese and Russian.

We’re working on some additional languages which will be available soon.
 

Thank you Noemie!