7 Signs of a Green Restaurant (Plus 5 Resources to Find Them!)
Eco, Noted
You’ve been cooking at home more because it’s healthier, more economical and allows you to support your local food systems. You’ve made your kitchen habits as waste-free as possible. But sometimes you want to go out. What makes a restaurant green and how do you find one?
There are currently no national standards for green restaurants – leaving room for plenty of greenwashing. There are certifiers around the country and websites that list green restaurants, but if you’re feeling lost, save this guide for handy reference!
Restaurants can take a variety of steps to green their operations. Here are some to look for when choosing a green restaurant:
1. Do they compost?
2. Do they use non-toxic cleaning supplies?
3. Do they source their food from local farms and producers?
4. Have they installed energy saving lightbulbs and appliances?
5. Do they offer take out containers and if so, are they compostable?
6. Do they donate cooking oil to convert bio-fuel?
7. Do they sell bottled water?
5 great sites for further scouting:
Dine Green is a certifier that works nationwide and helps restaurants take their first steps: You can search their lists for restaurants in your area.
Thimmakka is a San Francisco Bay Area non-profit that helps restaurants, other businesses, and city governments to interpret and navigate laws and standards.
Midwestern greenies should check out Green Restaurants, which lists eco-friendly restaurants in the Chicago area.
Sustain Lane lets you search for restaurants and other businesses nationwide or locally, and also includes reviews.
Ideal Bite gives you tips to effectively encourage your less-than-eco favorites to green up.
Image: Roby Ferrari
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4 Comments
April 16th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Cafe Gratitude (located in San Francisco, Berkeley and San Rafael) is an excellent, green restaurant. They run their business in a really cool way (called Sacred Commerce), plus the food is all organic, raw vegan and out of this world fabulous!!! Check them out if you’re in the Bay Area.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
Urth Cafe in LA is great, too!
April 29th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Thank you for your article on restaurants. There actually are national standards for Certified Green Restaurantsâ„¢. The Green Restaurant Association is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1990. For eighteen years, the GRA has been helping restaurants go through its eleven environmental guidelines, helping restaurants implement thousands of environmental changes, and helping them become certified. The restaurants listed on dinegreen.com are not just a listing of restaurants. They are restaurants that have signed a legal contract, committing to implementing a certain amount of environmental changes. The GRA verifies that the changes are made through documentation from distributors and other sources. It is a thorough process that is taking place in over 30 states in the U.S. and in Canada.
Take care,
Michael Oshman
October 8th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Thanks for the excellent info! Does anyone know of anything in the South Florida area?
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