McDonald’s recently rolled out a new fryer that uses about 40 percent less cooking oil and 6 percent less energy than the high-efficiency fryers the chain already uses.
Harrah’s Entertainment in Atlantic City, N.J., buys 1.1 million fewer disposable cups a year since switching to reusable, washable cups for its 16,000 employees, according to Ulrico Izaguirre, political director and director of regional communications for the company’s Atlantic City operations, including Bally’s, Caesars, Harrah’s and Showboat casinos, hotels, bars and restaurants.
For these savings and other energy-efficient efforts, both companies have been recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Harrah’s got the EPA’s Environmental Quality Award, given to organizations that have demonstrated an outstanding commitment to protecting and enhancing environmental quality. In 2007, McDonald’s was named the agency’s Energy Star Partner of the Year for outstanding energy management.
Both companies demonstrated that even small changes made by large companies could impact the environment noticeably.
EPA’s regional administrator, Alan J. Steinberg, says Harrah’s are “exemplary environmental stewards” who have “gone above and beyond for environmental change in local communities.”
Building team efforts Harrah’s also recycles 50,000 gallons of cooking oil each year. That fat goes to a nearby pig farmer, Izaguirre says, adding that many of the energy efficiencies were found and then implemented by employees who are encouraged to call the company’s toll-free green hotline. Internally, Harrah’s points out those staffers who discover the savings. “A lot of this has been team member-driven,” Izaguirre says. “People are very passionate about our green initiatives.” Looking locally “We have a companywide commitment to do our part to reduce, reuse and recycle,” Izaguirre adds. That initiative includes seeking more suppliers of local food. For example, at the Caesars hotel’s Nero’s Grill “we try to do as much as we can to get products from no more than 50 miles away,” he says. Meanwhile, at all Harrah’s restaurants, “we’re looking to improve and increase that type of practice,” he notes. Chipotle, based in Denver, also recently embarked on a campaign of buying seasonal and local produce. The company plans to purchase at least one-quarter of its produce for its more than 730 restaurants from small and medium-size “local farms.” Chipotle spokesman Chris Arnold says the produce would arrive at the stores “one to three days from harvest” and from within a 120-mile radius. But there’s a cost to “locavore” purchasing. The produce is more expensive, Arnold says, but transporting the items a shorter distance costs less. “We think it is going to be a wash,” Arnold says. “The bottom line is about serving better-tasting food.” Flavor first Marian Jansen op de Haar, the national wine director for Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, who is based in West Hartford, Conn., also puts taste first. She often favors the flavors of “green” wines over those made with grapes grown traditionally with herbicides and pesticides. “I think the fruit tastes very pure,” she says. “It is like when you pick tomatoes that you grew and nobody is messing with it. There is a difference in taste.” Of the new selections for a list of 100 recommended wines, more than 70 percent come from “green wineries that practice sustainable farming, and/or organic and biodynamic farming,” according to a recent press release for Fleming’s 60 restaurants. In selecting the “Fleming’s 100,” Jansen op de Haar and her team taste more than 5,000 wines, according to that same release. They judge chiefly on flavor, then look at price. If all else is equal, Jansen op de Haar typically picks wines that are green over those that are not in order to narrow the choices, she says. Green choices often cost her, and ultimately her guests, less than other wines of similar quality because fewer chemicals are used in grape growing, she says. But she doesn’t market green wines on the menu, noting that “20 years ago, when you said that a wine was made with organic grapes, people wouldn’t buy it because they thought it wouldn’t taste good. “They would say, ‘Oh yeah, granola, yuck,’” she says. “Now people will ask if grapes are grown with pesticides. Now it is more in the forefront of society.” Carlo Momo, an owner of Terra Momo Restaurant Group in Princeton, N.J., says it’s no exaggeration to estimate that everyone who manufactures equipment is currently “doing it with a green eye.” So to help clear out the green fog caused from an overload of information, Momo sought green certification for his group’s newest project, Eno Terra, a 6,000-square-foot restaurant slated to open later this summer in Kingston, N.J. Dollars and sense Obtaining Green Restaurant Association certification for one of Momo’s five restaurants costs about $7,000 initially and $3,000 for annual audits, he says. The price includes a listing of the restaurant on the association’s website. “It’s not easy being green in the restaurant business,” says Momo, a 26-year industry veteran. “Energy costs are through the roof. So it’s smart business. Ultimately you will be more efficient.” Along the path to green practices, Momo says, he had trouble finding anyone to transport both recycled trash and food scraps suitable for composting. But he had plenty of takers who wanted the waste delivered to them, and he had little trouble motivating staff to separate trash. “We are looking at [buying] biomass eaters,” Momo adds. “You take your food scraps, you put it in this big mechanical cooker and it turns everything into liquid. We can use that liquid as fertilizer or put it in the sewer.” That “cooker” costs between $30,000 and $40,000. Big Bowl, an eight-unit Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises concept based in Chicago, also incurred extra costs when management offered hormone- and antibiotic-free beef from cattle that are allowed to graze and are fed a vegetarian diet. The chain’s president, Dan McGowan, says the “all-natural beef” costs them $1.50 more per pound than the beef they previously bought. But “the increase for a cleaner product was not passed on to the guest,” says spokeswoman Laura Yee. Big Bowl’s natural-beef dishes include spicy Sichuan beef for $11.50 and kung pao beef with sweet green beans for $11.95. McGowan is a member of LEYE’s green committee, made up of representatives from various company concepts who “work together to investigate, locate and implement sustainable, energy-saving and eco-friendly initiatives such as replacing [inefficient] kitchen lighting and adding sensor switches,” Yee says. Getting real “Few places can provide such an experience at the price point and value that Big Bowl can,” McGowan says. “Our mission has been to provide great quality and all-natural products because it is the right thing to do. It’s all a part of what makes Big Bowl an authentic experience.” Since opening the Tampa, Fla.-based, five-unit Evos restaurants, co-founder Dino Lambridis primarily serves naturally raised beef burgers, and some organic ingredients, such as the milk in shakes. So he says his concept “comes though as authentic.” The 39-year-old Lambridis adds: “Our whole brand is based on the values of sustainability. We aren’t doing it because it’s cool or trendy. It’s not a marketing gimmick. It is healthier for our guests, and helps Mother Earth because there are less chemicals used in our soil.” New York-based B.R. Guest Restaurants claims to be the “first national multiconcept restaurant group to be certified green by the Green Restaurant Association.” At press time, 12 of the company’s 13 New York restaurants were certified, says Laurel Cudden, director of food and workplace safety. “We’re confident that our participation in the program will positively impact the restaurant industry specifically and the environment as a whole,” says Stephen Hanson, president and owner of B.R. Guest Restaurants. “It is essential to the future of our industry.” Among other environmentally friendly efforts, B.R. Guest Restaurants converted from plastic to recycled paper to-go food containers, and they now use corn-based bags to hold those containers. Cudden also says they clean with more environmentally friendly mixtures and purchase more local foods. “We will be introducing new corn-based cups and salad containers in all 39 restaurants,” says Jack Graves, chief cultural officer of Burgerville, based in Vancouver, Wash. “Eventually we plan to switch all consumer packaging from petroleum-based plastic to bioplastics and other plant-based materials, like sugarcane fiber.” Last fall Burgerville “announced that it was expanding its pilot composting and recycling program companywide in an effort to redirect restaurant-generated waste,” Graves says. “The expanded program underscores our commitment to infusing accountability and responsibility throughout our entire supply chain.” Currently, “36 restaurants are participating in the recycling program, and 21 restaurants are participating in a prototype program, which incorporates both composting and recycling,” he says. “Many of our guests have written to us to tell us that it is our sustainable programs that keeps them committed to the Burgerville brand. “Making a commitment to environmentally sound corporate initiatives is at the core of the culture and operating philosophy of our company,” he adds. “It is also becoming increasingly apparent that it is smart business. We believe that we can profitably support our sustainable business measures while helping to show other businesses how to successfully adopt these and other practices. At Burgerville, sustainable values mean helping people, communities and the environment thrive, thus maintaining our mission to always ‘serve with love.’ When the communities we do business in thrive, our business thrives as well.” Burgerville has also built a reputation serving seasonal, local fruits and nuts in such menu items as a hazelnut-chocolate shake. Local is also the order of the day at Walmart. The megamarketer now offers “locally grown produce in its stores across the country,” according to a recent press release. Walmart serves more than 176 million customers weekly. But despite the many local offerings, energy savings and earth-friendly efforts, Momo says the restaurant industry has just “scratched the surface” of green efforts, and McDonald’s national energy manager, Steve De Palo, concurs. “We’re very proud of our accomplishments,” De Palo says. “But there’s always more to do.”