Green Meadowlands Restaurants

Introduction:

 

Environmental sustainability is an essential component of financial viability for small and large businesses alike.  In addition to promoting the health and welfare of your community, sustainability measures help to cut operating costs, minimize future risk and liability, and to increase marketability through social responsibility.
 

For the restaurant industry, environmental sustainability requires comprehensive, long-term thinking in multiple areas, including energy and water consumption, waste generation, and chemical and natural resource use. While the extensive scope of a restaurant’s environmental impact may seem daunting at first, the Green Restaurant Association (GRA) has an extensive database of technologies, materials, and services available throughout the country to reduce this impact.  In fact, it is currently possible, and cost effective, for new restaurants to employ technologies that are 75% more efficient than their traditional counterparts; integrate more sustainable food; and achieve near-zero waste.  By proactively selecting the most efficient and sustainable technologies and materials for your food service facility, you will avoid unnecessary expenditures on energy, water, and waste.

 

The GRA’s Guide to Greening Meadowlands Restaurants contains solutions for maximizing environmental sustainability in nearly every aspect of a restaurant’s operations. The solutions have been grouped into seven areas:

1. Energy Efficiency

2. Water Conservation

3. Waste Reduction

4. Disposables

5. Chemical & Pollution Reduction

6. Food

7. Sustainable Furnishings & Building Materials

 

Best management practices (BMP) and education are provided within the text of this report, along with specific action steps (Standard) that are more quantifiable and can also be found in the GR4.0 Certification Standards, http://www.dinegreen.com/restaurants/standards.asp. It is the hope of the GRA that you will adopt as many of these recommendations as possible in order to minimize your facility’s impact on the environment, cut costs substantially, and occupy a unique niche in the food service industry for leadership in environmental sustainability.