For the second year in a row, Formex presented the Sustainability Award. Lursta were the winners with their cast iron pancake batter.
Congratulations on winning this year’s Sustainability Award. How does it feel? And what does this mean for you?
Receiving the Formex Sustainability Award feels incredibly big and important for us at Lursta. The award is a confirmation that our work on sustainability and our efforts to minimize our impact on the environment are noticed and recognized. We feel strengthened in our belief that recycled materials, local resources and thoughtful design are the way forward. Not only for us but also for the industry as a whole. It is time to make these areas an integral part of product development.
Furthermore, we see the award as an opportunity to raise public awareness of the importance of sustainability in the foundry and kitchen products industry. It gives us a platform to spread our message that cast iron can be both timeless and environmentally friendly, and that there is a difference between cast iron and cast iron. We hope that this award will inspire others in the industry to follow our example and adopt more sustainable manufacturing practices.
Can you tell us about your company and the product that won (the Arvet pancake batter)?
I (John Andersson) am an architect and designer, and with a patented idea for a cast iron product, I searched a couple of years ago for the best foundry in Sweden to realize my idea.
Contacts in my design circles whispered that Lyrestads Gjuteri could be the right choice. When I got in touch with Andreas Stridkvist, a third-generation foundryman, the pieces began to fall into place. Andreas has an entrepreneurial mind and already had plans for his own brand, when we soon realized that we shared several key interests in cooking, design and ambitious product development, we realized that we could make a great team. These insights led to the formation of Lursta Cast Iron.
Since its inception in 2021, we have launched a range of consumer products in cast iron and collaborated with some of Sweden’s most interesting chefs and restaurants to deliver custom-designed solutions. Through personal relationships and conversations, we find unusual and unique ideas that we can build on to create innovative and well-designed products. Often food memories or craftsmanship play the main role in inspiring a new product.
Through innovative solutions in our foundry, we have managed to significantly reduce our carbon footprint. We use only renewable energy and we have also reduced electricity consumption by 15%. We are proud to recycle a whopping 95% of our moulding sand, minimizing waste and reducing the need to extract new materials. This is an important step towards circular and sustainable production.
To further reduce our impact, we have switched to using only water-based black in our processes, eliminating the use of harmful solvents and reducing our chemical impact on the environment.
We are proud to be part of research projects for sustainable development in the foundry industry. Through collaboration and innovation, we are actively taking steps towards a more sustainable future. We are convinced that small actions can have a big impact, and we are determined to continue working towards reducing our environmental impact and promoting a more sustainable lifestyle.
The design also reflects the sustainability perspective. For designer John Andersson, it is important that Lursta’s products become treasured possessions. Partly because of their properties as cooking utensils, partly because they have meaning, carry beautiful memories and become something you want to display, keep and take care of. A somewhat underestimated perspective is that the better designed a product is, the greater the incentive to care for, repair and pass on the product. This places high demands on the quality and choice of materials, but also on the design, which must feel relevant for long periods of time and not be based on a temporary trend.
Do you have any tips or advice for other companies that want to start their sustainability journey?
There are many tips to give. We are constantly looking for new ways and often get help and advice from others. But see sustainability as an ongoing process, and take many small steps rather than one big one that never happens.
Sharing insights and successes to empower others will benefit you in the long run. See and take advantage of other positive side effects of your sustainability efforts. For example, local production tends to mean more opportunities for personal relationships and thus greater opportunities for efficiency, flexibility and joint investment. Think long-term and avoid riding on temporary trends. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, start at the right end: decide to make a change! This makes the work clear and obvious.
What’s next for you?
Attending Formex and receiving the Formex Sustainability Award was certainly a dreamy start to 2024 for Lursta, but the truth is that we have an almost equally exciting year ahead of us! In 2024-2025, Lursta is an official partner of the Swedish Bocuse d’Or. The Bocuse d’Or is the world’s most prestigious competition for chefs. Ahead of the European Championships in Trondheim in March and eventually the World Championships in Lyon in 2025, Lursta’s designer John Andersson will design Swedish candidate Gustav Leonhardt’s serve to boost his chances of the long-awaited gold.
In addition, we have a number of interesting products and projects on the drawing board that we are looking forward to presenting during the year. We will continue to work hard to develop cast iron as a material and to update its design language to feel warmer, softer and more thoughtful.
Visit the Lursta website here: www.lursta.se
Visit Lursta on Instagram here: @lurstacastiron
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