The Rising Sun, as part of Heartwood Collection, has once again been awarded a Food Made Good 3-Star Rating for 2026 by the Sustainable Restaurant Association, the highest standard in their globally recognised framework for responsible hospitality.

Three stars again. We won’t pretend we’re not chuffed.

What is the Food Made Good Standard, anyway?

It’s not a badge you can buy or a box you tick. The SRA’s assessment is rigorous, evidence-based and measured across ten key impact areas, covering everything from where your food comes from to how a team is looked after behind the scenes.

Earning three stars means demonstrating, with real proof, that sustainability sits at the heart of what we do. Not as an afterthought. Actually at the heart of it.

Sourcing with integrity

Great food starts long before it reaches your plate. At Heartwood Collection, provenance and transparency aren’t buzzwords, they’re how we actually do things.

Our senior chefs make regular visits to farms and fisheries, building genuine relationships with the people who grow and rear our ingredients.

We believe in more plants and better meat. That means championing seasonal, plant-rich menus alongside beautifully sourced animal products raised to the highest welfare standards.

Our seafood is responsibly sourced too, with a move to direct sourcing for key ingredients like our Loch Fyne mussels.

Taking care of people

Hospitality is all about people. Whether it’s the ones you’re feeding or the ones doing the feeding. We work hard to create an environment where our teams feel genuinely supported and can build long, rewarding careers.

We take our responsibilities to guests seriously too. Our TenKites allergen system means everyone can make safe, confident choices about what they eat.

The SRA specifically praised our cascading approach to training, our menopause awareness programme and our team-led charitable giving. That recognition means a lot.

Treading a little lighter

Reducing our environmental footprint is something we’re constantly working at. Lowering emissions, improving energy efficiency and taking a circular approach to waste.

Around 40% of all food produced in the UK is lost or wasted, and hospitality accounts for a chunk of that. It’s both an environmental and a social issue, and we take it seriously.

When energy costs rose sharply, we brought in specialists and installed sub-meters across our sites to track consumption properly. That pressure became a long-term improvement programme.

Our recipe-level forecasting tool removes the guesswork from procurement, and a team reward scheme keeps waste within a tight, disciplined tolerance.

What this means when you visit

When you sit down at The Rising Sun, you can feel confident that the food on your plate has been sourced with care, the team looking after you has been looked after too, and we’re doing our very best to protect the world around us.

That’s what great hospitality looks like to us and this rating is a foundation, not a finish line.

Here’s to exceptional food, warm hospitality and doing a little good along the way. Cheers to that!