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El Buensolete will recognize establishments that work with local products, reduce waste, save resources and take care of your teams
Repsol Guide has decided to look beyond what reaches the plate. Your new distinction, Buensolete, aims to recognize bars, restaurants, cafes, ice cream parlors, chiringuitos, wine bars and other establishments already distinguished with a Solete that incorporate good practices in their daily operations.
The call started on 25 September and is open to more than 5.000 Soletes who are currently part of the Guía Repsol community. The establishments that participate will be monitored for a year and the first distinctions will be awarded in September 2027, within an extraordinary annual edition.
The recognition aims to put the focus on issues that have traditionally been far removed from gastronomic awards.: where the product comes from, how much is wasted, how energy or water is consumed and what conditions are generated around the people who work in the business.
Close product and less waste
The philosophy of Buensolete is based on four main areas: local and seasonal product, waste reduction, efficient use of resources and social sustainability.
This can be translated into very specific gestures.. Repsol Guide cites among them the use of reusable materials, energy efficiency measures, water saving or low consumption lighting. It also incorporates labor and social aspects, how to facilitate conciliation or hire people at risk of exclusion.
It is not considered, therefore, as a recognition reserved for large restaurants with the capacity to make significant investments. The stated intention is to evaluate practices that can be adapted to the size and possibilities of each establishment..
That nuance is relevant. One pocket, A cafeteria or an ice cream parlor can hardly take on the same processes as a large restaurant., but they can review suppliers, reduce losses or improve certain consumption.
All Soletes can opt
The call is open to all categories currently recognized by the guide: restaurants and food houses; bares, taverns and bars; cafes and pastry shops; ice cream parlors; beach bars and terraces; fast good establishments and wine bars.
This also opens the door to the Soletes de Canarias, integrated into a category that was born precisely to distinguish everyday establishments, affordable and especially linked to the informal eating and drinking experience.
The Buensolete now means adding another filter to that look: It is not only important that the place is attractive, but also how it works inside.
The SDGs as a reference
To establish the criteria for the new distinction, Repsol Guide has taken as reference the Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030 of United Nations.
Participating businesses will be able to accredit, among other aspects, the use of local suppliers and seasonal products, the management of surpluses and losses, measures to reduce waste, energy saving and responsible consumption, in addition to actions related to the well-being and social sustainability of its staff.
The initiative appears at a time when concepts such as sustainability, kilometer zero, circular economy or integration have also been gaining weight within gastronomic valuation systems. The Repsol Guide itself points out that these criteria are already part of the evaluation of its Soles.
A year to prove it
The operation of the call also introduces an unusual element: there will be no immediate concession.
From the opening of the process until September 2027 A year will pass in which the participants will be monitored. In this way, The distinction aims to value a sustained way of working more than a specific performance prepared to pass an evaluation.
Repsol Guide summarizes the spirit of recognition in a fairly simple idea: reward establishments that take care of their customers, but also to the environment and to those who work in them.
The question will be to check, when the first Buensoletes arrive, to what extent these principles can be translated into sufficiently concrete and comparable criteria between such different businesses.
Because working better doesn't always require big speeches. Sometimes it starts with something as basic as buy closer, waste less and also look at what's happening on the other side of the kitchen.
