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CDS’s Oberstadt: Going green not one-size-fits-all fix

CDS’s Oberstadt: Going green not one-size-fits-all fix

ZEELAND MICH. —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

Oberstadt is well aware of all the confusion surrounding the issue because, well, she’s been there and already done that. —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

As operations director for Creative Dining Services, an on-site foodservice company here handling some 150 accounts in a 10-state radius, Oberstadt last July headed up a multifaceted, eco-friendly initiative. Her efforts ranged from purchasing local, sustainable and organic foods and cleaning products to organizing training and education workshops for both the company’s employees and clients, to providing energy-efficient alternatives, to creating a composting and alternative-sanitation program. —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

One lesson Oberstadt learned was to pick and choose which information to use. She said she knew it was impossible to go completely green because not everyone wanted or could afford it, but she also figured it was possible to decrease CDS’s carbon footprint without hurting its bottom line. —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

She said that offering a sustainability program had become a necessity because many of CDS’s clients and customers demand it. —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

“We’d get invited to participate in [requests for proposal], and there’d be a line in there requiring a sustainability statement or some type of sustainable practice,” she said. “So I did an intense, deep dive into it. There were a lot of elements, starting with the food we procured. And what do you do when you’re in the Midwest in the winter and the ground is frozen? Then there is all the waste that foodservice produces. It’s huge. What do you do with all that stuff, and what does compostable mean? Those were a few of the things I wrestled with. But the thing that really surprised me was the amount of time we spent educating ourselves in what was good information as opposed to bad.” —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

So what’s Oberstadt’s best advice to industry peers interested in becoming more eco-friendly? —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

“Understand that what’s affordable to one is not to another,” she says, “so figure out what’s most meaningful—being more environmental, eating local or choosing organic. Be educated managers and educate when asked to. There’s really not a one-size-fits-all approach.” —If you are a foodservice operator wondering how to tackle the challenges associated with going green or implementing some type of sustainable practice at your business, Jeanine Oberstadt feels your pain.

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