Michelin Quietly Ends Green Stars for Sustainable Restaurants

Bangkok, Thailand, October 25, 2025 / TRAVELINDEX / The “Green Star” awarded to sustainable restaurants with a focus on local ingredients has been eliminated. Although the Michelin Guide has not officially commented on the removal of Green Stars, they have been removed from the Guide’s website and search filters. In Thailand, acclaimed restaurants, Haoma and JAMPA, both former recipients of the Michelin Green Star, have recently had their Green Star distinctions removed from their profiles.

Why cut Green Stars? The restaurants’ sustainability claims were entirely self-reported, with no independent verification. “It became widely known among restaurants that securing a Green Star only required submitting a generic sustainability report each year,” one source explained. “These reports were often shared and modified to fit different establishments, and Michelin never verified any of the information provided.”

According to an article on Michelin’s own website, which may well vanish after this article goes live, here’s how inspectors described what they looked for when awarding Green Stars: “There is no specific formula for awarding a MICHELIN Green Star, as every restaurant and its surrounding region has a unique set of conditions. The MICHELIN Guide inspectors are simply looking for those at the top of their game when it comes to their sustainable practices…“.

The remaining Michelin distinctions include the traditional stars (ranging from one to three), the Bib Gourmand for so-called “budget-friendly” dining (by Michelin’s own definition), and the simple “Selected” designation, a starless mention reserved for restaurants deemed worthy of note.

The Green Star program, launched in 2020 with considerable fanfare, was compromised from inception. Unlike Michelin’s conventional star ratings, which, whatever their flaws, rest on tangible evaluation criteria executed by trained professionals, the sustainability awards operated in a fog of vagueness.

Traditional stars assess measurable elements: ingredient quality, flavor balance, technical execution, chef’s vision, and consistency. These aren’t arbitrary; they’re specific benchmarks that anonymous inspectors pursue during their visits.

But here’s the flaw: a single meal cannot reveal any of this information. Sustainability isn’t something you can taste. You cannot discern a restaurant’s carbon footprint from your tasting menu. The treatment of kitchen staff, the ethics of supply chains, the honesty of waste reduction claims, none of this is visible from the dining room.

Industry insiders knew the game. Restaurants discovered they could secure a Green Star by submitting boilerplate sustainability statements, documents that circulated among establishments, tweaked here and there to reflect individual operations. These reports brimmed with fashionable terminology: regenerative agriculture, circular economy principles, farm-to-table partnerships, zero-waste initiatives.

Genuine verification would require unprecedented access: independent auditors observing kitchen operations, inspecting equipment and facilities, visiting farms and suppliers, tracking ingredients from origin to plate. Michelin never implemented anything approaching this standard.

The uncomfortable reality: the majority of Green Star recipients probably didn’t merit the distinction. Of nearly 500 restaurants awarded this accolade, perhaps five percent genuinely operated with exemplary sustainability standards.

High-end dining, by its nature, tends toward wastefulness. Vegetables are trimmed into identical shapes, discarding perfectly edible portions. Proteins are portioned with exacting precision, generating significant scraps. Kitchens demand specific ingredients regardless of seasonal availability or ecological consequences. Industrial equipment consumes enormous energy. Single-use packaging proliferates behind the scenes.

Progress exists, certainly. Some operators genuinely prioritize environmental stewardship, often at considerable financial cost. These efforts deserve recognition, but here’s the catch: the most authentic sustainability work often happens outside Michelin’s radar.

This quiet disappearance of the Green Stars raises fundamental concerns about sustainability recognition in gastronomy. Should we accept superficial sustainability narratives while substantive work goes unacknowledged?

Should environmental awards in food be underwritten by major corporations and industrial agriculture conglomerates? How can we create verification systems that authentically assess and celebrate restaurants doing legitimate environmental work?

Michelin’s silent retreat from Green Stars suggests they realized the program’s credibility was unsustainable. Rather than reform the system with rigorous standards, they chose to end it.

Convinced of the urgency to rethink Sustainable Gastronomy, as one-third of greenhouse gas emissions are produced by the food industry, TOP25 Restaurants in collaboration with SustainableFirst.com, are initiating an advanced AI-driven system, verified and validated by sustainability and environmental experts, to conduct independent audits, assess supply chain transparency, and establish accountability measures that move beyond self-reported marketing claims.

The challenge remains immense: creating transparent, verifiable standards for an industry where authentic sustainability extends far beyond the dining room requires substantial resources and commitment.

How can we ensure that restaurants and producers making a real impact have their practices and supply chains independently verified and recognized thereby inspiring future generations to preserve natural resources, reduce environmental harm, and foster equitable food systems?