4 Steps For Building An Effective Sustainability Plan For Your Restaurant

Making the decision to make your restaurant a more sustainable operation has gotten considerably easier in the last few years.  That’s because as consumer awareness grows there are more and more benefits associated with “green” restaurants.  If you’re in doubt, simply look at the National Restaurant Association’s sustainability efforts,...

Your Restaurant’s Guide To Compostable Food Service Supplies

Every to go container, every disposable cup, and every plastic fork your restaurant uses ends up in a landfill somewhere.  Over the course of a year that adds up to millions of tons of trash from all the restaurants in the United States.  For most restaurants, these disposable items are a necessary part of doing business, and the lower the cost, the better. Yet more and more restaurants are turning to compostable versions of...

Becoming A “Zero Landfill Company” Is A Journey

Being completely trash-free is a daunting task.  Even a company in the business of “green” with highly educated Eco Patriots is challenged by this.  Last week, Eco-Products reviewed our waste diversion results from 2009.  We strive to divert 100% of our waste from landfills – everything is either composted or recycled. Last year,...

Ten Cheap Ways To Boost Efficiency (AND Profits!)

1. Start-up, Shutdown Schedules Not everything needs to be turned on right away when the first cook arrives. Equipment start-up schedules similar to just-in-time ordering saves energy with no investment. 2. Low flow aerators These are potentially one of the lowest priced efficiency measures a restaurant can buy. Aerators range from .50 to a several dollars and return the investment almost instantly. 3. ...

Why Chipotle’s Food With Integrity Is Good Business

Everybody in the food service industry is talking about locally sourced food these days.  The National Restaurant Association has called local, sustainable, and organic ingredients one of the biggest trends of 2010, and consumers have defied logic by proving they are willing to pay more for better quality. The Mexican-themed chain Chipotle has carved a niche...

Green Restaurants: How To Get LEED Certified And Why You Should

Every year, your restaurant’s green cred on the street gets more important.  According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), it’s one of the hottest trends of 2010.  Companies across the board, in and out of the food service industry, have scrambled in recent years to label their brands as green, with varying degrees of success. Some companies have taken advantage of the green mood consumers are in by “greenwashing”...

How Low Flow Can Improve Your Cash Flow (AND Green Cred)

Your restaurant uses a lot of water.  Between the water you serve your guests, the ice machine, the dish machine, and the sink, any restaurant goes through a lot of water on a daily basis.  I don’t have to tell you how much that water costs you.  I’m sure you’re reminded every time you...

Green Initiatives: A Rise In Cost Or A Part Of Your Marketing Budget?

QSR magazine published an article recently about new take out packaging for restaurants made from recycled plastic water bottles.  Dubbed The Bottle Box, the restaurants that have used it say it performs just as well or better than normal plastic take out packaging, and that it can be customized with your establishment’s...

Go Green, Save Money, Serve Better Produce

As the past few years have shown, produce can be a food safety liability for anyone in the food service industry. Easy spoilage also makes produce a very difficult item to manage on your inventory. On top of all that, produce takes a lot of time and labor to prep. Yet fruits and vegetables are also a vital ingredient on any restaurant’s menu, and most of you out there have mastered the fine art of serving clean, healthy, fresh...

Green Restaurants: Turning Food Scraps Into Electricity

San Francisco restaurants are often on the cutting edge of sustainability and green practices.  They’ve pioneered ways to turn food waste into fertilizer, reduce food miles by sourcing locally, and decrease waste through recycling and composting. More recently, the East Bay Municipal Utility District has started converting...