“Going Green” and What It Really Means

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[dropcap size=big]B[/dropcap]efore opening her hip Toronto coffee shop, the Green Grind, [highlight ]Becky Dooley[/highlight] had always been committed to environmental responsibility — she had even earned a master’s degree in environmental studies. As a consumer, she had long been seeking a local coffee shop where everything was fair trade, organic and environmentally friendly, but she couldn’t find anything that fit the bill of going green. “So, I decided to build what I was looking for myself,” says Dooley, who has been successfully running the Green Grind since late 2009. To avoid accusations of “green-washing” — or cashing in on the green trend without evidence that her practices are actually good for the environment — the entrepreneur wanted to offer customers proof of her café’s green credentials. All of her coffee would have the official fair-trade stamp, but she also wanted an official seal of approval on the building and operations side. So, Dooley applied for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC) and was certified at the gold level in 2011. (See “Where It Counts,” p. 27) Dooley is part of a small but growing number of Canadian restaurateurs creating LEED-certified businesses. “LEED certification, in general, is a steadily growing trend in Canada — in fact we now have more than 1,500 LEED-certified buildings in Canada,” says [highlight ]Mark Hutchinson[/highlight], director of Green Building Programs with the CaGBC. “In terms of restaurants and foodservice in particular, [operators] are beginning to recognize the benefits of LEED certification and having greener operations, but they still make up a relatively small portion of the projects we receive for registration and certification. As with all project types though, as we progress we expect the interest to continue to rise.” LEED certification was a priority for Dooley, but she acknowledges it isn’t realistic for everyone. “It can be cost-prohibitive for smaller operations,” she says. Registration and certification fees alone can range from $4,500 to $24,000, depending on the project size. (Although restaurants are typically at the lower end, according to Hutchinson.) “ LEED certification in general is really costly, and I had to hire someone to deal with my project and lead us through the process,” says Dooley, noting that her LEED consultant cost $10,000. Still, operations like hers can teach the average foodservice operator a great deal about how to become even a little bit more green — and every little bit helps. There are countless initiatives any operator can undertake to reduce their impact on the environment and yield long-term cost-savings. Here are some helpful hints from several of the greenest foodservice operators around, broken down to examine the four main areas in a restaurant:

Kitchen and Food Delivery

The Whistler Olympic Park Day Lodge and its accompanying restaurant, the [highlight ]Brandywine Café[/highlight], in Whistler, B.C., received LEED gold certification in 2009. One big change in terms of its “greening” program was the switch from disposable plates, cups and cutlery to the use of china and silverware. “We’re operating a day ski lodge restaurant … and an awful lot of this type of business is typically about disposable and quick, often heavily packaged and pre-purchased items,” says [highlight ]Grant Cousar[/highlight], director of Business Operations/proprietor of Whistler Cooks, the company that provides F&B services for the Brandywine Café. “But we backtracked and said, ‘Hey, let’s blow this thing up and see how much of it really has to be that way and how much of it can go down a different road.’” The non-disposable tableware involved some up-front costs, and of course there’s the cost of washing it all — “But when you take a look at it, yes, you’ve got some energy use and some water use and some chemical use, but it 100 per cent adds up [in terms of financial savings and environmental impact],” says Cousar, who was unable to provide specific figures. As for kitchen appliances, Cousar says combi-ovens and a low-temperature dishwasher help reduce energy and water usage. Similarly, the Green Grind’s Dooley purchased all Energy Star appliances, which have been granted the Energy Star label by the Canadian government for meeting strict energy-efficient performance specifications. And, at Starbucks Canada — which registered its first Canadian store for LEED certification in 2010 (in Toronto) and has been building all its new corporate stores and major renovations to LEED standards since 2010 — water is conserved by using high-blast nozzles to clean pitchers faster and more efficiently than could be done with running water.

Front of House/ Dining Area

Lighting can be a key way to conserve energy in the dining area. “With our lighting, all of the lights in the main space are on daylight sensors, so if there’s enough light in the space, the lights automatically go off,” says Dooley. “I also have accent lighting over the main espresso bar, and those are all on dimmers, so usually we don’t even bother to turn them on — only on very grey days. I’ve only replaced two light bulbs in the four years since I’ve been open, and those are just standard light bulbs, they’re not even the long-life types.” The CaGBC determined that these measures meant Dooley was benefiting from a 40-per-cent reduction in her energy bills. Ontario’s ONroute centres — the roadside centres located at various spots along highways 400 and 401 that house a variety of QSRs, including Burger King — have been in the process of becoming LEED certified for several years, and a number of locations have already achieved silver certification. They use “highly efficient lighting” (compact fluorescents and LED exit signs) to reduce electricity consumption and minimize internal heat gain, and they employ strategic use of glazing (curtain wall and skylights) to allow for daylight to stream throughout the building. Similarly, the Whistler Olympic Park Day Lodge features numerous floor-to-ceiling thermal windows to let as much natural light in as possible, reducing the need for artificial light. The double- or triple-paned glass also prevents heat from escaping in the winter and prevents heat from getting in during the summer. In terms of front-of-house furnishings, the Green Grind primarily uses recycled vintage furniture. “We used a lot of old kitchen chairs, but we painted them one colour so they would all coordinate,” says Dooley, noting that all the paint used for this task, as well as throughout the whole store, contained no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which makes it safer for breathing and better for the environment in general.

Washrooms

Bathrooms aren’t the sexiest area of a foodservice operation, but the energy hogs can be made more energy-efficient. “We have motion sensors on the lighting in the washrooms. Nobody can ever leave the lights on by mistake, so we don’t lose energy that way,” says Dooley. The Green Grind also uses low-flow toilets and low-flow faucets. The CaGBC estimates that this has led to a 40-per-cent cost savings in terms of water usage for Dooley, as compared to a standard space of similar size. Conservation is taken a step further at Whistler’s Brandywine Café. “Our toilets are Australian dual-flush units; and, in the men’s washrooms, the urinals are waterless, which adds to our water conservation,” explains [highlight ]Lindsay Durno[/highlight], director of the Whistler Olympic Park. But, although waterless urinals are cost-effective in terms of water usage, Durno isn’t sure it was the right choice for his seasonal ski lodge. “If I were to do it again, I would install low-water urinals instead. We’re a winter-based organization, so our urine flow in the winter is adequate enough to keep the urinals working, but in the summertime when we’ve got less urine going into them, we find the fumes can be quite overwhelming … so because of the lower usage in the summer, we do end up with  a smell problem.”

Heating, Venting and Air Conditioning

When it comes to heating and air conditioning, sometimes the “greener” option can be as simple as avoiding extremes. At Starbucks, for instance, the policy is to allow air-conditioned stores to reach 24°C instead of 22°C on warm days. Dooley has a similar approach at the Green Grind: “I never heat the space to the point where it’s really warm, or air condition it to the point where it’s really cool,” she explains. “And, on mild days we have a wall of windows we can open in the fall and spring.” She didn’t make any changes to the HVAC system in the building, as that would have been too costly for her small business. Ontario’s ONroute centres, on the other hand, installed high-efficiency HVAC systems, featuring “heat recovery” (a system that keeps the heat in while efficiently moving the stale air out, by using the heat in the outgoing stale air to warm up the fresh air) as a way to minimize energy consumption. “Saving and conserving natural resources is an important investment in the future,” sums up [highlight ]Michael Jones[/highlight], VP of Business Development for HMSHost, the company that operates the ONroute centres. “Travellers visiting the centres have responded positively.” Similarly, Cousar says greening the Brandywine Café’s operations has been overwhelmingly positive — from a consumer satisfaction and marketing perspective as well as in terms of operational efficiency. “It’s been a landslide win, for sure. There are very little, if any, negatives,” he says. His advice for other operators? “If you can afford to put any of these types of initiatives into play in any form, it will have a positive effect.”

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