Street Roots • August 11-17, 2017
News
Page 8
The final straw
Restaurants look to reduce plastic waste and
“green ” up with more Earth-friendly practices
BY ELIZABETH BUELOW
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
he environmental impact of the
restaurant industry is massive. The
Green Restaurant Association
estimates that, on average, each American
restaurant produces 50 tons of garbage each
year, uses 300,000 gallons of water, and
consumes more electricity than any other
type of retail business.
In the Portland-metro area, which according
to City Observatory has more restaurants per
capita than all but two other U.S. metropolitan
areas, that’s a considerable environmental
impact.
Some local restaurant owners are trying to
change that by partnering with the Green
Restaurant Association, or GRA, to find ways
to make their operations more sustainable.
Food waste is a main culprit in the amount
of waste restaurants send to the landfill.
Americans waste 40 percent of their food
supply, according to the Natural Resources
Defense Council, and restaurant diners are no
exception. Additionally, cardboard boxes, beer
bottles and other recyclables end up in the
garbage when employees aren’t diligent about
recycling.
According to the association, close to 95
percent of restaurant waste could be recycled
or composted.
“We are, quite simply, not using our
resources in an intelligent way,” said Michael
Oshman, founder and CEO of GRA “Let’s look
at the issue of garbage. As a species, we
spend huge amounts of money and water and
trees and oil to make things and then throw
them into a big pit (a landfill) that’s going to
sit there for decades, centuries, millennia.”
Oshman founded the GRA, an
J j j | , international nonprofit, in 1990 and
has gone on to pioneer the “green
;
' F restaurant” movement, calling itself
“the leading voice within the
industry, encouraging
restaurants to green
their operations
"using transparent,
science-based
certification standard.”
Oshman’s organization
has developed a
certification program that is
now widely circulated, including
within large companies such as
Microsoft, which implemented the
GRA’s standards into its Redmond
campus’s corporate dining program,
feeding more than 50,000 employees.
Oshman’s strategy is to look at industry
trailblazers - such as Microsoft - in order to
establish environmental leadership and hope
others will follow suit. Oshman estimates that
more than 800 restaurants in the United
T
States and Canada are green-
certified, and if you add
manufacturing and distributing - the
other two pillars of the GRA - his
network extends to more than 40,000
establishments.
The GRA’s system is based on
“green points,” a collection of
standards that reflect 25 years of
research on the impacts the restaurant
industry has on the environment.
Restaurants can achieve star levels by
improving their sustainability in seven
categories, from things like water
efficiency and waste reduction and
recycling. Once a restaurant signs up,
the GRA provides a professional
consultant who offers expertise with
regard to obtaining green points.
Oftentimes, the GRA can point them to
products and services that are already
in their distribution network: for
example, napkins that are made from
recycled materials.
“We often discover many restaurants
have 20 steps they’re already doing.
They already have 52 green points,
and then we go on to help them
with their distributors because
we know the products,” said
Oshman.
Though there is a small fee
involved in the certification
process, often around $50 per month,
Oshman said that restaurants end up
saving much more in the long run
because going green is not only good
for the environment, it’s good for a
restaurant’s bottom line.
“The argument for sustainability is so clear.
You may spend a little more on a more
efficient dishwasher, and care less about the
environment, but your business will spend
less money over a long period of time by
encouraging efficiency. Business and
sustainability are one and the same. This is
why you have major corporations powering
their operations using solar. Society has
shifted,” he said.
By making small, “green” changes,
businesses can save. For example, switching
out incandescent light bulbs for LED lights
presents effective cost saving. While LED
bulbs are more expensive up front, they
typically use about 25 percent to 80 percent
less energy and last 3 to 25 times longer,
according to energy.gov. Restaurants can also
save money by composting their leftovers and
unused food instead of throwing them in the
trash. Additionally, using hand dryers in
bathrooms contributes zero waste and utilizes
minimal electricity - all of which contributes
to cost savings for restaurants. “I’m not a tree
hugger,” Oshman said. “I’m a business
person.”
Widmer Brewery is one of five green-
certified restaurants in Portland, along with
four Bamboo Sushi establishments, all of
which have 3-star ratings. (GRA rates
restaurants up to five stars, with the fifth star
designation titled Sustainabuild.) They all
amassed green points for things like serving
vegetarian and vegan dishes, using energy-
efficient appliances including LED lamps and
recycling food waste.
On a tour of Widmer’s North Russell Street
location, the brewery’s sustainability manager,
Julia Person, pointed out numerous examples
of their eco-friendliness, from a newly-installed
herb garden to a poster of their “Sustainability
Story and a comprehensive recycling guide.
Out of their five dumpsters, only one is for
garbage, the other four are for compost and
recycling. In their employee area, a sign touts
their reusable takeout container program for
on-campus meals, an effort to reduce the
3,000 annual to-go containers that formerly
went to landfills. They also have a bucket
where employees can drop off their recycled
batteries. All this earned them a 3-star rating
with the GRA.
g
Widmer Brewing has been green-certified
Learn more about
the Green
Restaurant
Association’s
standards, best
practices and
certification process
at dinegreen.com.