Arthur Renwart (Artfood): "A 100% sustainable event doesn't exist"
INTERVIEW – Now certified as a B Corp and ISO 20121, Artfood is positioning itself as the first Belgian event caterer to combine both certifications. Its co-founder and CEO, Arthur Renwart, explains how these virtuous practices are transforming his company and its event management in a market riddled with greenwashing where price remains the deciding factor.
After progressively structuring its practices in sourcing, waste sorting, and food safety, Artfood has taken another step forward by obtaining both B Corp and ISO 20121 certifications. The first assesses the company as a whole, from its governance to its social and environmental practices. The second focuses on its responsible management system applied to event activities: it guides the integration of CSR issues into processes and their continuous improvement.
While perhaps not glamorous for those with non-technical backgrounds, this double recognition nonetheless crowns a sustainability approach initiated from the outset in 2009, based on a philosophy of "meaningful gastronomy." For the trained chef turned CEO, this double "proof" actually masks an ongoing project that mobilizes everyone from those in the kitchen to those involved in logistics, from suppliers to sales teams.
Brussels-based caterer Arthur Renwart, which caters to over 500 events and serves nearly 85,000 guests each year, describes the wide-ranging operational implications and competitive consequences. Interview.
Gondola Foodservice: You have just achieved pioneer status on fundamental issues. What impact does this have on you initially?
Arthur Renwart, co-founder and CEO of Artfood: We are obviously proud to be the first to reach this milestone in our sector. These are crucial issues that have always been close to our hearts. But, honestly, this pioneering position in Belgium is partly due to a happy coincidence of timing, as we have been engaged in this demanding process for two or three years, with a very rigorous approach to the figures and operational constraints.
Access to these certifications is highly selective. How did you translate these requirements without sacrificing your qualities, your products, the "DNA" of Artfood?
Artfood is in its seventeenth year of operation. As a trained chef and hands-on person myself, I have worked alongside great chefs throughout my career for whom local produce and seasonality have always been a given. We haven't reinvented the wheel: thirty years ago, some chefs were already demonstrating exemplary sustainability without any official certification.
From the very launch of Artfood, this philosophy naturally became the norm in terms of sourcing and equipment management. At a time when disposable items were the standard for caterers in Brussels and Belgium, we were practically the only ones delivering in durable containers, made of real porcelain and in reusable salad bowls.
As we grew, we continued this momentum. About ten years ago, the Brussels-Capital Region launched the "Eco-Dynamic Enterprise" label, with one, two, and three stars. We entered the program by first obtaining one star, then we achieved all three. Even back then, we had installed pressure reducers on our taps and automatic lighting detectors in our workshops, which was very innovative.
In terms of food products, we supported the growth of organic farming by obtaining official certification, which allowed us to provide 100% organic services upon request. Similarly, for waste management: long before sorting became legally mandatory in Belgium and everything ended up in general waste containers, our SME was already organizing and financing the selective sorting of PMD (plastic, metal, and drink cartons), cardboard, and residual waste.
A continuous, progressive process, going a little further in effort at each stage then?
Absolutely. We've taken things a step further by integrating the self-monitoring system validated by the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSCA). This has provided us with a genuine management methodology. We've developed in-house application tools to monitor the temperature of all our refrigerated storage units, formalize cleaning protocols, and ensure complete traceability of our raw materials and suppliers.
During the health crisis, we already had this solid foundation. But we wanted to take it a step further by pursuing B Corp certification, which structures the company's social transformation, and the ISO 20121 standard, dedicated to the responsible management of event activities. As a technical professional, I approached ISO 20121 as a continuation of our non-conformity management and continuous improvement processes.
In order to objectify, or even more, to prove your virtuous organization?
It's a powerful bulwark against greenwashing! Annual audits, third-party checks, and data publication force us to measure our real impacts. A 100% sustainable event doesn't exist in practice, but we now have a whole data ecosystem: a high-performing ERP to quantify our emissions, with the goal of soon offering customers menu alternatives directly linked to their carbon score.
This structure also relies on a dedicated team: we are one of the few caterers in Belgium to employ a full-time person to manage the CSR policy, in consultation with all the department heads and my wife, Eugenie Sarkissiane, with whom I run the company.
This approach is akin to a true industrialization of your artisanal processes. How did you manage the financial and organizational costs of this compliance and the objectification of your practices?
The first challenge was a human one: we had to convince and mobilize all the teams, from the kitchen and logistics to scheduling. Setting up three or four recycling bins in a kitchen represents an additional operational burden for the cooks. We had to undertake a thorough management effort, even going so far as to use transparent bins and inspect the contents of the containers to instill good habits.
From a financial perspective, these initiatives require significant investment. Integrating an ERP system necessitated hiring an ERP manager to develop our management tools. Each logistics item is now categorized within the system according to its material (polyester, steel, glass, porcelain), weight, and dimensions to calculate its transport and logistics impact. In the kitchen, traceability of origins allows us to directly contribute to our carbon footprint assessment and eliminate packaging upstream.
We've also redesigned our menus: instead of two annual menus, spring-summer and autumn-winter, we've adopted a strict four-season schedule, adapted for seated dinners, buffets, and food stalls. Between 2020 and 2023, we reduced the amount of meat on our plates by 18%, and our plant-based offerings now represent half of our culinary options. To make our culinary choices more objective, we rely on the Agribalyse database, which provides life cycle analysis data, including CO2 emissions and nutritional values for each food product.
We also process the vast majority of our products ourselves. With the exception of bread, nearly three-quarters of our preparations are entirely homemade. Unlike many caterers who rely on pre-cut, industrially produced vegetables, we prioritize raw processing in our own workshops.
However, this rigor comes at a commercial cost. In our early days, some clients categorically refused organic wines. Today, with the economic pressures, price is once again the dominant factor, and we sometimes prefer to decline projects in the face of industrial, low-cost offers with which we refuse to compete.
Faced with economic and inflationary pressures, are you seeing a shift in the market towards environmental impact issues? Are you considering passing these costs on to your customers through higher prices?
We are indeed feeling this shift. Present in many important venues in Brussels, with institutional clients, we are seeing that in certain less high-end segments, contracts are being lost solely on price. And even for confirmed events, the competition is becoming fiercer, for example with a decline in the consumption of celebratory drinks like organic champagne.
Passing on these costs through a general price increase is not currently on the agenda. We are already selling services for 2027 and we are committed to maintaining our competitiveness. Therefore, the company is absorbing the inflation of raw materials and the legally mandated wage indexation in Belgium, which has represented an increase of 13 to 15% since the end of the health crisis.
When certain food items experience disproportionate price increases, we adjust our menus rather than blindly passing on the rise. For example, the brown shrimp, an iconic Belgian product, has gone from €18 to nearly €50 per kilo. Faced with such a dramatic price surge, we remove it from our standard menus and only offer it upon explicit customer request, as an exceptional item.
Your quality standards and your local presence, with a strict selection of your raw materials, do all this not deprive you of operational flexibility?
Our ability to adapt relies on the experience and culinary creativity of our teams. But it also requires ongoing dialogue with our suppliers to help them grow alongside us. In Belgium, regulations don't impose the same level of obligation regarding origin labeling as in France. Therefore, we must implement our own traceability system, starting with the labels and crates upon delivery.
Many wholesalers still operate using traditional methods and struggle to adopt these standards. We have sometimes lost sustainable supply chains. A few years ago, our partner fishmonger, who guaranteed non-destructive fishing techniques and avoided declining areas, went bankrupt, with no equivalent on the market to replace him. Moreover, after the surge in local consumption observed during the pandemic, we are now seeing a clear reversal driven by the decline in purchasing power, leading to the closure of sustainable businesses.
In this challenging market environment, does the leadership role for the profession remain a priority objective?
It's an absolute priority! Of course, Artfood remains a company with employees and revenue targets to meet, but paving the way and inspiring our fellow caterers and restaurateurs is an integral part of our success. Today, customers receptive to this approach represent about half the market, while the other half remains indifferent.
In public procurement and institutional tenders, sustainability is beginning to be taken into account, but it still too often comes in fourth place, behind price in first place, creativity in second, and culinary concept in third. To truly transform the sector, contracting authorities must place sustainability at the heart of their selection criteria.
Getting back to certifications, it might seem technical, but B Corp certification defines who Artfood is as a company, while the ISO 20121 standard governs how you work on a daily basis. What are the pillars of this responsible model?
This system is based on continuous improvement. Internally, we provide our teams with over 40 hours of sustainability awareness training, notably through a festival and CSR-themed weeks. Operationally, we manage issues through a corrective action system tailored to the severity of non-conformities, whether related to waste sorting, food safety, or customer service. These discrepancies are analyzed in committees with department heads and resolved within strict deadlines. In parallel, we measure customer satisfaction using the Net Promoter Score (NPS), where we achieve a score of 80, demonstrating a level of excellence.
Are you planning to develop external training activities, like an Artfood Academy, to pass on your rigorous methodology?
Academic training is not our primary focus, and we prefer to rely on specialized consultants who support us. However, we do organize roundtables with our key stakeholders, such as institutional clients, partner suppliers, and department heads. These discussions allow us to collaboratively develop a roadmap, ensuring that all stakeholders take ownership of these objectives.
What are your next concrete projects in terms of environmental impact and infrastructure?
We are constantly strengthening our circular logistics. In Brussels, we have successfully completed a pilot phase to collect all our waste using electric cargo bikes, thus eliminating the need for traditional garbage trucks to run around the city. Regarding organic waste, we have partnered with a local organization to collect 24 tonnes of biowaste in 2025 and transform it into compost.
Our next major challenge is moving to a new, fully eco-designed building. We plan to install industrial energy recovery systems: capturing water vapor from washing machines, recovering waste heat from evaporators and refrigeration units to preheat domestic hot water. The building will be equipped with a large photovoltaic roof coupled with storage batteries to optimize our energy self-sufficiency, while also supporting the complete electrification of our vehicle fleet.
