Why the green star had to go

PARIS. Since the publication of the Michelin Guide for the Nordic countries on 1 June, the Green Star for sustainable restaurants has been a thing of the past. Instead, the Michelin Guide will in future recognise figures from the worlds of gastronomy, hospitality and wine-making through its new ‘Mindful Voices’ initiative. Regulatory reasons lie behind the sudden demise of the successful sustainability symbol introduced in 2020. As the international director of the Michelin Guide, Gwendal Poullennec, admitted in an interview with Le Chef magazine, new legal standards and laws – particularly in Europe – are forcing the Guide to take action. These laws increasingly classify visual icons in the context of sustainability as official certificates or administrative labels.

“The Green Star was never intended as a label in the administrative sense of the word. Such a label implies a completely different and almost opposite approach to ours,” said Poullennec. For 126 years, the Michelin Guide has pursued a purely editorial approach: “We were never concerned with certifying infrastructure, but with evaluating experiences.” To avoid being forced into the rigid straitjacket of state-defined criteria and to preserve the creative freedom of chefs, Michelin is now pulling the plug.

This has direct consequences for the restaurateurs concerned. Poullennec made it clear that Michelin had already removed the Green Star symbol from the protected portal for industry representatives as of September 2025. He expressly recommends that restaurants cease using the symbol in their own communications. He also emphasised that Michelin had never produced official Green Star plaques – restaurants that had affixed signs to their façades had, in doing so, “taken certain liberties”.

Despite the abrupt end, Poullennec takes a positive view of the concept to date, which has been awarded to 650 restaurants worldwide. It has fundamentally changed the awareness of the industry and guests. With the new ‘Mindful Voices’ (in French “Voix Engagées”), the concept of sustainability will in future no longer be conveyed through a dedicated award, but via a kind of global platform and direct dialogue with stakeholders – and, for the first time, in the wine sector as well, starting in July 2026.