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Q&A: Scott Shotter of Moe’s Southwest Grill

The VP of operations talks about the importance of going green

A Moe’s Southwest Grill location at 860 Johnson Ferry Road in Atlanta recently was awarded Certified Green Restaurant recognition from the Green Restaurant Association.

The company-owned store became the city’s third certified green restaurant by installing efficient spray valves and faucets, adding special energy-efficient lighting, applying low VOC paints and coatings, and removing all polystyrene from the restaurant.

The Green Restaurant Association recognizes restaurants that meet the standard of sustainable strategies in categories such as waste, energy, chemical reduction, water, pollution and food.

Nation’s Restaurant News caught up with Scott Shotter, vice president of operations of Atlanta-based Moe’s, and discussed what it takes to go green for a concept with four company-owned stores and 433 franchised units.

There are a lot of different categories for going green. Which was the most challenging to deal with?

Energy. That took the most investment and the most time to get into place. Energy had to do with the lighting package we installed and low-flow toilets and aerators on the hand sinks. That was the most time-consuming and took a lot of resources.

We also plan to implement recycling. We’re reserving that for the next step. We’re in a strip mall and share common garbage disposals, so it’s hard for a single operator in a strip mall to get fellow tenants in line with the recycling program

What did it cost you to implement the green strategies?

Somewhere north of $12,000. That includes upgrading the lighting package and introducing a thermostat that regulates our HVAC. We went after air curtains in our walk-ins and changed toilets to low flush. We had to invest upfront without the understanding what the exact return would be.

Why does it make good business sense to be so energy efficient and green?

We needed to look beyond the business. The return on investment would be two-and-a-half years. It’s the right thing to do and the important thing to do. We know it in the end it will be worth the investment.

What about your food containers and materials?

We’re changing to paper products. We removed polystyrene for our to-go materials and changed to a recyclable plastic.

Have any of you customers said anything at this Atlanta location about the changes?

They noticed we’re using a new queso cup.

Is this a pilot for your franchised locations?

We would like it to be. It’s a good model. There is a payback. We’ll take another six to eight months to figure out the return on investment and get a model that our franchises can get behind. We’ve made some changes to our equipment for the system and it’s filtered into our prototype.

What specifically have you changed?

We changed our ice machine to lower volume on water use. We changed our paint type. We’ve changed optional lighting packages that franchisees can operate. We changed the queso cups from polystyrene to paper. We introduced a new uniform program using uniforms that are made from 95-percent recycled plastic bottles, and we’ll roll that out in November. And the shirts and the hats will be made from this material. It’ll save 2 million plastic bottles from going to the landfill based on our system’s volume in shirts. It’s also 5 percent Lycra, and it’s a sharp-looking uniform.

Contact Alan Snel at [email protected].
Follow him on Twitter: @AlanSnelNRN
 

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