Waterhouse, a new restaurant on the banks of the Regent’s canal in London, has opened this month, claiming to be the city’s most eco-friendly restaurant.

The menu at the Waterhouse makes use of organic, seasonal ingredients – but it is the building itself, rather than the food, which really helps the restaurant stand out. The building’s waterside location has been used to full effect, as water from the canal will be used to help cool the building, rather than using traditional air conditioning systems. Additionally solar panels on the roof will heat water, organic kitchen waste will be composted by a small worm farm – and the resulting vermicast will be used for the restaurant’s herb garden, and the customer bathrooms will be paper free – the specially designed toilets spray users with a jet of warm water, followed by a blast of warm air, eliminating the need for toilet paper.

The eco-friendly restaurant, which is owned by the charitable regeneration agency, the Shoreditch Trust, which has invested £400,000 in setting it up and fitting it out, will also be the first restaurant in the country to replace bottled water with filtered tap water, using a on-site filtration system.

Arthur Potts-Dawson, who helped create the restaurant, said: "Water is central to the restaurant, both practically as a source of power and philosophically as the source of life and regeneration. By providing water which is filtered and chilled on-site, and therefore not harming the environment, we are staying true to this theme."

The team behind the restaurant also hope to pass on their concern for the environment to a new generation of chefs, by providing training opportunities for young people to become environmentally friendly restaurateurs; and they hope some of the green initiatives, in particular the use of filtered water, will soon become a standard feature throughout London’s restaurants.