Since we were talking about food trucks in class last week, I thought it'd be interesting to read about trucks that are all about going green. In this article I found, it concentrates on "The Green Truck" in LA.
The truck not only serves organic, and local & sustainable foods, but it's also environmentally friendly. Their food is cooked in a solar-powered commissary. The truck also runs on vegetable-oil fuel, and their utensils and packaging are made of biodegradable packaging.
The article states "Green Truck’s eco-menu includes local certified-organic vegetable salads, free-range chicken, tofu lavash wraps, line-caught mercury-free tuna tacos, and more." Its signiture dish is the Mother Trucker vegan burger with beet relish.
"'Healing the planet one meal at a time,' says Kam Micelli and Mitchell Collier who founded the Green Truck and keep grease out of the sewer system and crap out of landfill."
I like that not only full-sized restaurants are going green, but also that small trucks that travel cities are very commited to the issue too. Interested to see if this catches on to more trucks as well.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20071101/reinventing-the-cheeseburger.html
This article to me is an awesome example of what going green can do for a resturant. this small fast food franchise was losing its business to the bigger fast food resturants and simply by purchasing from local producers and suppliers. they not only cut their costs, and now help diffrent ranches and farms support themselves they also over the course of time may cut the cost of Bio-diesel by a small amount in their area by donating their grease. ultimately they have also cut their costs where they can offer a health benfit to their employees at a small cost, and have increased their business by the people who want to see sustainable food in their resturants as well as efficiant resturants. i hope to see more fast food resturants jump on the band wagon with this chain
This article to me is an awesome example of what going green can do for a resturant. this small fast food franchise was losing its business to the bigger fast food resturants and simply by purchasing from local producers and suppliers. they not only cut their costs, and now help diffrent ranches and farms support themselves they also over the course of time may cut the cost of Bio-diesel by a small amount in their area by donating their grease. ultimately they have also cut their costs where they can offer a health benfit to their employees at a small cost, and have increased their business by the people who want to see sustainable food in their resturants as well as efficiant resturants. i hope to see more fast food resturants jump on the band wagon with this chain
Mcdonalds Green Arch?
This article was really interesting to me, because it is about McDonald's changing their arch from the classic red and gold, to hunter green to support their going green. In great Britain and France they have started to make the change over to the green, and the article also said that 100 franchises in Germany are expected to make the change by the end of this year. When i was first reading this i was thinking that that alone can't make them green. Then as i was reading more i realized that they really are trying, because they are getting LEED certified. As we learned before LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environment Design Maybe McDonald's will start changing their restaurants to be more green. That will be a really interesting change to see.
The White House Goes Organic.
I was really impressed when I read this article about the Obamas. "Obama and the children used only organic fertilizers and insect repellents, and instead of chemical pesticides, ladybugs and praying mantises are being used to control harmful insect populations." According to the article, this is to start a healthy lunch campaign. What is great about this is that it will get people to lean towards going green. "The number of Americans who buy organic food on a weekly basis currently sits at a 25 percent minority. That number will likely rise as the White House garden gets continued press when its organic produce is served at various Washington, D.C., functions." I think that having this out there will inspire more people to think about going organic, even if it is a bit more expensive. "[Michelle Obama]is doing it because she believes it's the right thing. Therefore, that's what's going to happen and that's what's going to affect public opinion.” Even better is that they aren't just promoting organic foods, but eco friendly as well by not using pesticides in their garden.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
http:/www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-01-19/green-more-than-a-buzzword-for-san-diegos-restaurant-industry
This article discusses how it is true that due to the economy people are indeed going out to eat much less because of a decrease in personal disposable income. What I found fascinating was that this article says that more than half of the people who are stil going out to dine (62%) are more likely to go to places that they know are "green." These restaurants are also focusing more on not only purchasing locally grown food, but also putting more effort towards performing more economically friendly practices such as recycling, using eco-friendly cleaning products, and bio-degradable to-go containers. Dennis Stein, co-founder of Sea Rocket Bistro, even goes as far as to try to only hire staff who live in close proximity to the restaurant in order to cut down on gas usage, which also helps to support the local community, and he keeps an electric motorcycle for use of any errands that may need to be done. Stein is also involved int he local community by supporting such groups as Food Not Lawns, which encourages people to plant gardens instead of lawns around their houses and he also donates all of his restaurants' biodegradable food waste to schools for use in their gardens.
This article also talks about the Green Restaurant Association, which is a non-profit organization that helps restaurants and all other brances of the food industry to become more environmentally sustainable. It works on a point-based system where restaurants are able to achieve 3 levels of certification. It helps to show which restaurants are actually "green" since there is no set standards currently which qualify a restaurant to be "green." It also shows restaurants how far they really can go with the "green" trend such as outfitting restaurants with "low-flow water systems, low-volatage lights, motion sensors, timing devices, compressors that reduce refrigeration expenses, reclaimed paper products and plenty of recycling bins." All of these step which owner may not realize they can take to help the environment while also being able to cut so many costs.
I also learned that LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which I remember someone had asked about because he/she had seen it in another article. An LEED certification must be obtained through the U.S. Green Building Council, but this article did not state what it actually took to achieve the different levels of this certification. Though it does say that Claire's restaurant is LEED platinum certified (the highest level) and that the things that make it "green" include "a dining room furnished with all re-purposed materials, recycled denim as insulation, a 90 percent edible garden, solar panels that provide 50 percent of the restaurant's electricity, and a pervious parking lot, meaning water drains into it versus running into the streets..."
This article discusses how it is true that due to the economy people are indeed going out to eat much less because of a decrease in personal disposable income. What I found fascinating was that this article says that more than half of the people who are stil going out to dine (62%) are more likely to go to places that they know are "green." These restaurants are also focusing more on not only purchasing locally grown food, but also putting more effort towards performing more economically friendly practices such as recycling, using eco-friendly cleaning products, and bio-degradable to-go containers. Dennis Stein, co-founder of Sea Rocket Bistro, even goes as far as to try to only hire staff who live in close proximity to the restaurant in order to cut down on gas usage, which also helps to support the local community, and he keeps an electric motorcycle for use of any errands that may need to be done. Stein is also involved int he local community by supporting such groups as Food Not Lawns, which encourages people to plant gardens instead of lawns around their houses and he also donates all of his restaurants' biodegradable food waste to schools for use in their gardens.
This article also talks about the Green Restaurant Association, which is a non-profit organization that helps restaurants and all other brances of the food industry to become more environmentally sustainable. It works on a point-based system where restaurants are able to achieve 3 levels of certification. It helps to show which restaurants are actually "green" since there is no set standards currently which qualify a restaurant to be "green." It also shows restaurants how far they really can go with the "green" trend such as outfitting restaurants with "low-flow water systems, low-volatage lights, motion sensors, timing devices, compressors that reduce refrigeration expenses, reclaimed paper products and plenty of recycling bins." All of these step which owner may not realize they can take to help the environment while also being able to cut so many costs.
I also learned that LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which I remember someone had asked about because he/she had seen it in another article. An LEED certification must be obtained through the U.S. Green Building Council, but this article did not state what it actually took to achieve the different levels of this certification. Though it does say that Claire's restaurant is LEED platinum certified (the highest level) and that the things that make it "green" include "a dining room furnished with all re-purposed materials, recycled denim as insulation, a 90 percent edible garden, solar panels that provide 50 percent of the restaurant's electricity, and a pervious parking lot, meaning water drains into it versus running into the streets..."
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
http://www.qsrweb.com/article.php?id=16722&s=1
This article really stood out to me because I feel the information on sustainability in quick service restaurants isn't as prevalent as a more upscale restaurant would have everyone know about it. the companies in the article need to put that information out to their public and not just keep it as a file in a folder to make themselves look appealing to potential investors, franchisees and so on. i belive this information might also boost sales. because people would know where there fish is coming from and that its not over fished, as well as debunking some of the customers preconceived notions that they have about seafood in fast food restaurants.
This article really stood out to me because I feel the information on sustainability in quick service restaurants isn't as prevalent as a more upscale restaurant would have everyone know about it. the companies in the article need to put that information out to their public and not just keep it as a file in a folder to make themselves look appealing to potential investors, franchisees and so on. i belive this information might also boost sales. because people would know where there fish is coming from and that its not over fished, as well as debunking some of the customers preconceived notions that they have about seafood in fast food restaurants.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Eco-friendly practices, local purchasing top trends for 2010
The article that I read talked about a survey that was conducted on 1854 members of the American Culinary Federation about the importance of different food and beverage practices. It came out that most of the new trends in the up-coming year are leading towards more local and organic food and practices. Restaurants as well as customers are looking for fresher food, less food transportation, supporting local, sustainability, and nutritious foods. The AFC president Michael Ty claims that "This is retro...It's what we did in the past when chefs relied on local markets because we did not have the luxury of today's transportation system. We are going back to our roots and the foundation of our craft that made it more pleasurable." This seems interesting to me that we are actually retrograding towards simpler methods and away from the new technology that has forced us to tamper with food in order to make it more transportable and possibly less nutritious. I find it interesting that chefs believe that buying local is indeed preferable because the food is not only more nutritious, but also tastes better and they are having to use less ingredients (such as sauces) to cover up less quality products. The chefs surveyed also believe that there will be an increase in the industry of more eco-friendly equipment and practices, which I have to say I would be very happy to see happen. All of these practices and equipment currently in use are bad for the environment and if we do not start doing something about it now then soon it will be too late.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
"Tennessee company strives for sustainable packaging options"
This article I found is about a company called "Southern Champion Tray" which is about using eco-friendly product in packaging. They are using "Green Seal–certified cleaning products at their facilities, experimentation with biodiesel and cutting-edge fuel efficiency modifications to their trucking fleet, compostability testing on its products, and using motion sensors and skylights to reduce energy use in their warehouses." As it points out in the article as well, most people do not realize what goes into their packaging product, and all of the chemicals involved. This is a great way to get people aware. It could start making people think as well of what they can do differently to help the environment, since as it says in the aritlce, the green movement is all about asking "what can I do differently that I wasn't doing before?"
I really like the concept of changing what goes into our packaging, especially for the food service industry since we also throw so much of it out. If more companies do this, we have less trash that will harm the environment while using less chemicals while making our packaging.
I really like the concept of changing what goes into our packaging, especially for the food service industry since we also throw so much of it out. If more companies do this, we have less trash that will harm the environment while using less chemicals while making our packaging.
How Starbucks is Changing Packaging
I found this article about Starbucks to be very interesting. By 2012, Starbucks wants to only use cups that are 100% recyclable. It states that Americans use 58 billion cups per year, which obviously adds to the thousands of tons that are forced into our landfills each year. I wasn't aware that Starbucks has already taken steps to make their paper products more environmental friendly. "In 2006, Starbucks introduced a paper cup that contained 10 percent post-consumer recycled fiber, and last year it switched from the standard PET cold cups to polypropylene cold cups, which use significantly less plastic and reduce greenhouse gas emissions during manufacturing by 45 percent." Not only will this help improve their environment, it could also potentially improve business for Starbucks. Dunkin' Donuts still uses styrofoam cups which are known to be bad for the environment. DD consumers may eventually make the turn to Starbucks if they're pro-green.
I was happy to see this article, and the many others I came across that showed how quick service restaurants are taking the extra steps to help improve our environment.
I was happy to see this article, and the many others I came across that showed how quick service restaurants are taking the extra steps to help improve our environment.
Quick Service going green!!
This article that i found was really interesting, because it's all about fast food restaurants making their buildings greener. The way they did this was add energy star kitchen appliances, which of course would help with energy in the building. Some places even got rid of indoor lighting and replaced it with sunlight. I really agree with this article, because it might help other quick service restaurants do the same, and really help save the environment. The one thing i noticed that they didn't tell us was what LEED was. Another reason i found this article to be so interesting was because I never knew that all these fast food restaurants were trying to be green, and actually being successful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)