Goading green

There was a passing mention here, a quick aside there, an oh-by-the-way tangent to a speaker’s larger point. But the five or six references, coming on a single day of the restaurant show, suggest the industry may soon have to contend with a new dose of government agita, this time dealing with conservation.

At least two of the day’s presenters mentioned a growing interest among public officials in obliging restaurants to operate in a greener fashion. A representative of Energy Star, a federal resource for cutting energy consumption, advised restaurants to benchmark their demand on utilities in part to protect themselves from heightened government scrutiny. You want to be able to show what you’d done to conserve, just in case, she explained. But she didn’t specify why regulators or lawmakers might be gauging restaurants’ efforts to cut their power consumption, or what actions they may be contemplating.

A representative of IPC Subway, an independent purchasing cooperative for the chain, was far more explicit. Tina Fitzgerald, director of produce and social responsibility for IPC, cited interest by some nations, states and counties in outlawing certain types of containers or packaging materials, like plastic bags or plastifoam boxes. She noted that Canada is already levying a tax based on “how much packaging goes out the door,” a spur to cutting how many containers or wraps come in through the back.

Fitzgerald also recounted how Subway sent an energy-saving CFL bulb to every franchisee to encourage the replacement of less-efficient incandescent bulbs. She indicated that the franchisees have found religion, so to speak, and then commented that mandates might soon force the non-believers to make the changeover in any case.

I don’t think she meant the franchisor would levy that demand. The aside seemed to fit her point that governments are becoming more active in regulating green.

Drinking for a healthier planet. That's my story.

I’m pleased to report you can now drink and save the planet, too. As a restaurateur revealed during the National Restaurant Association’s webinar this afternoon on ways of being more ecologically minded in a bleeding-out economy, there are such things as “green drinks.”

“We devised a green drink menu,” explained Laura Wood Hber of Croc’s 19th Street Bistro in Virginia Beach. “We have organic beer, organic wine, organic vodka, organic nectors. We have a Sugar Plum Martini where we use organic sugar on the rim.”

Pardon me as I wipe a tear from my eye.

Even more arresting—and that's not easy for me to say—was the common sense demonstrated by Hber and her fellow presenters in the green steps they’ve taken. Right now there’s a feeling, reality-based or not, that restaurants’ green efforts may be sidelined by the industry’s financial straits. How can you save the environment when you’re focused full-bore on saving the business?

And does a thin-walleted public even care anymore? According to epicurious.com’s forecast of next year’s major food trends, “‘value’ is the new “sustainable.’”

That notion was swatted down during the webinar, “Making 2009 a ‘Greener’ Year for Your Restaurant.” The title may have used "greener" in the environmental sense, but it could just as readily been referring to dollars. The speakers stressed that you don’t have to loom your own uniforms or adopt a polar bear to demonstrate an environmental consciousness. A few simple changes, they reported, will please both green-minded customers and a dollar-fixated business manager.

Chris Dahlander, proprietor of the two-unit Snappy Salads fast-casual chain, said his operation has cut its water bill by $1,600 a year by installing low-flow sprayer nozzles in the kitchen. He estimated the cost of the nozzles at under $80, and noted that his utility provided them to Snappy Salads free of charge as part of its conservation program.

He’s also cutting down on paper—and how much he spends on it—by refusing to use a fax machine. “I say, ‘Well, I have e-mail,. Why not just e-mail it to me?’”

Jeffrey Clark, a consultant with ICF International who spoke on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, noted that keying restroom lights to motion sensors costs less than $85. Yet by ensuring the lights stay off until someone enters, the gizmos cut a room’s electricity use by 25% to 75%. Similarly, fluorescent bulbs, despite their higher costs, use only about 25% as much electricity as incandescents do, and they last appreciably longer.

Dahlander cited such other economical green moves as using vegetable scraps to make soup stocks instead of throwing them out, and cleaning glass surfaces with just vinegar and water.

But not all of the green measures he’s taken are as economical as standard practices. He noted that Snappy Salads uses cups and other disposables that are made from corn starch, which biodegrades. But they also erode his bottom line a bit.

“The corn-based cups cost about 16 cents each,” he said. “So we decided to charge people for water.”

Dahlander explained that he put up a sign in each of his restaurants, alerting patrons that a glass of water would now cost them 25 cents, and explaining why. The message explains that “we’re not going to make any money on it,” and that the charge merely defrays the cost of the cup.

“I’ve had three people say to me, ‘Hey, you’re crazy for doing this.’ They paid it. They just said I was crazy.’”

He noted that each of his fast-casual outlets gross about $1 million a year in sales. Crazy, indeed.

You can catch a replay by looking here on the NRA's environmental site, Conserve.