At Nolla, responsibility isn’t a concept - it’s the foundation. From running a seasonal kitchen in close co-operation with local producers, to the choice of interior materials and beyond, at Nolla every decision is rooted in their aim to be as environmentally and socially responsible as possible. This conversation explores how circular thinking informs every decision, from sourcing and cooking to materials, mindset, and guest experience.
Nolla was born from a desire to make the restaurant industry more responsible. What was the moment or insight that made you decide to pursue a zero-waste approach?
It started when we realised the sheer amount of waste a very small restaurant could generate. We were serving around 40 guests a night, yet filling the trash room three times a week. Once you see that, you can’t unsee it. It simply didn’t make sense to continue operating in a way that produced so much waste.
A seed was probably already planted because of our backgrounds — growing up surrounded by mining waste, urban chaos, or close to nature. But the defining moment was understanding the scale of the problem in our own operation. Taking responsibility felt natural. From there, zero waste became inseparable from our food philosophy, our relationship with producers, and how we build our menus.
Your food philosophy centres on locally produced organic ingredients. How do your relationships with local producers shape your menus throughout the year?
Our relationships with producers are very close. We speak to them weekly and see them regularly, as they deliver directly to the restaurant. Everything we source comes from within roughly 250 km.
Instead of designing menus and asking producers to supply specific ingredients, we reverse the process. We ask what’s available in the fields right now, and that defines the menu. Tomatoes in winter or strawberries in February simply don’t make sense. Our role is to embrace seasonality and use ingredients when they are at their best, portraying them honestly on the plate.
Circular thinking is core to your work. Can you explain how it’s implemented in practice?
Our work rests on three main pillars.
The first is maximising ingredient use. In a traditional kitchen, up to 40% of a vegetable can be discarded through trimming and shaping. That’s not just food waste — it’s wasted energy, water, and effort from the producer. At Nolla, we aim to use 100% of each ingredient by rethinking how skins, tops, peels, and trimmings can re-enter the menu. Often, these overlooked parts are the most interesting.
The second pillar is refusing single-use packaging. Everything must arrive in reusable containers. By preventing waste at the source, there’s no need to manage it later. Some materials, like wine bottles, are recycled or repurposed in-house as candle holders, water glasses, or serving plates.
The third pillar is closing the loop. We compost biomaterials we can’t yet use, creating pre-compost that goes back to our producers as fertiliser. We also repurpose materials internally — cutlery holders made from our own discarded plastics, coasters from recycled materials, linens made from textile offcuts, ceramic seconds used as flower pots.
In food, circularity means using whole animals and plants. For example, with fish, we use the fillet, bones, skin, cheeks, belly, and tail across multiple elements of a dish. The goal is simple: prevent waste first, and if something can’t be prevented, find a way to reintroduce it into the system.
Transparency is one of our core values, and we are happy to give a shout-out to the producers we work with, so anyone interested in responsible local produce can find them. We recently launched a comprehensive directory of all the producers that we work with on our website, complete with a map where you can explore the producers near you.
You’ve committed to responsibility in every detail. What’s an often-overlooked choice that’s made a meaningful impact?
The most overlooked choice is mindset. Responsibility has to be part of daily conversation and normal operations. Without a shared mindset across the team, none of the specific actions would work.
What inspires the team is the creative challenge of getting closer to zero — figuring out what to do with broken materials, unfamiliar ingredients, or side streams. It becomes a positive, almost competitive process of constant improvement.
You evaluate and refine your actions constantly. What are you rethinking right now?
Communication is our main focus. We’re launching a new website and reconsidering the language we use. Terms like “sustainability” or even “zero waste” are not always helpful, and we’re very careful to avoid greenwashing.
We’ve always wanted the guest experience to feel normal — a great meal, good wine, a relaxed atmosphere — without turning it into a “sustainability showcase.” But we’re now exploring better ways to communicate what we do, honestly and clearly, without overwhelming people.
On a practical level, we’re exploring new composting technologies that could generate liquid fertiliser and electricity on-site. We’re also continuing to refine ingredient maximisation and working with Aalto University students to rethink how materials like bones, glass, ash, and broken ceramics can be reintegrated into our system.
What do you hope people take with them after visiting Nolla?
We hope people leave understanding that responsibility doesn’t require sacrificing quality or experience. Our goal is for guests to have an amazing night — great food, great drinks, great company — and only then realise that it all happened in a restaurant that produces almost no waste.
If that experience plants a seed and makes people question why this isn’t normal everywhere, then we’ve succeeded. Ultimately, we hope Nolla won’t need labels like “sustainable” or “zero waste” — because these practices will simply be the norm.
