Green Buildings
Energy costs are on the rise and newer, more advanced recycling opportunities are emerging which is causing many restaurants to go green…in a good way. Restaurants, stores, office buildings, and even stadiums have been tidying up their work style through a more energy-efficient, recycling-conscious type of business –the fairly recent environmentally friendly trend known as building green. Building green has been a relatively new development, with organizations like the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) becoming popular on a national level and the Green Restaurant Association (GRA) getting its start in 1990.
But just what does building green mean? For many businesses it means taking out the trash…permanently. Michael Oshman, president of the GRA, says the ultimate goal of his earth-friendly organization is to help restaurants become more environmentally sustainable in cost-effective ways, a change that will greatly impact our economy since the restaurant industry accounts for 33 percent of all U.S. retail electricity use according to the GRA’s website. “We look at what’s going to make the most financial sense,” says Oshman who examines each restaurant on an individual basis depending on how much the customer wants to change and how easily obtainable those adjustments are.
The nonprofit organization starts out small, making changes such as introducing napkins and toilet paper made from recycled products. Taking on four steps a year, most restaurants have a 1-5 year contract to turn their business into a more eco-friendly place to dine. Why restaurants? One trillion dollars a year, or one tenth of the American economy, comes from the restaurant industry, explains Oshman. This means that one dollar out of every ten that Americans spend is used at a restaurant.
As for trash, green building aims at eliminating solid waste as much as possible. According to the USGBC, buildings produce nearly 140 million tons (about 30 percent of all output) of waste each year. As green buildings become more popular, the reduction of construction and demolition (C&D) debris will be significant, leaving one to wonder in which direction the solid waste industry will soon begin to shift. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines C&D debris as bulky, heavy materials that are generated during the construction, renovation and demolition of buildings. They can range from wood to asphalt to plumbing fixtures.
“A big part of what we do is keeping materials from going into landfills,” says Oshman, adding that an increase in recycled materials within a restaurant could eventually mean the elimination of unsightly waste bins on commercial properties. In the movement towards a more recycling-aware society, building green aims to decrease the amount of C&D debris created, which the EPA says will result in a reduction of the amount of new materials being made, the availability of new jobs, and a reduction in the cost of building and renovating by lowered disposal costs. And many businesses have been eagerly jumping onboard with the idea of saving money through reduced utility bills while lessening their daily waste.”We have been completing four [GRA] steps per year to try to find more environmentally friendly ways to run our business,” says Jennifer Lilly, office administrator for Woodstock Pizza’s corporate office.
Woodstock Pizza has been working with the GRA for nearly four years. Currently they are in the process of replacing items like napkins, menus, plates and salad bowls with recycled materials for five of their six restaurants. Their sixth and newest restaurant will use the GRA to develop a green establishment from the start.
The idea of building green restaurants has been spreading slowly, yet significantly, among the public as well. “We had a group that came in every Wednesday solely because of the GRA,” says Lilly. Woodstock Pizzas make sure to post a sign in the door to let customers know that they are eating in a green restaurant. Oshman agrees that advertising to the public is an important step in the success of this long-term process. Educating people mostly comes from posting information inside the restaurants such as when a customer goes into a restroom and reads that the paper towels and toilet paper are made from recycled materials.
But building green is much more than just recycled paper and lower trash levels; a driving force behind the success of the environment-conscious process is a reduction in energy use. “One of the biggest impacts you can make is through the solar industry,” says Oshman. The USGBC uses energy-efficient standards to guide customers through the green building process. Some of the designs implemented use natural ventilation instead of air conditioning, strategically placed windows to maximize sunlight use for lighting and heating, and high-quality windows to reduce unwanted air flow. In order to regulate the USGBC’s standards, they have designed a rating system referred to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) which is a nationally used green building guideline according to the USGBC’s website. LEED uses a color system that breaks each building design into certified projects, silver projects, gold projects and platinum projects depending on how many LEED standards were used.
Green building organizations have also been considering new ways to reuse restaurant-produced grease. “You can take grease from a restaurant and through an easy process make it into a diesel fuel,” says Oshman. “Now people are more open to really a lot of ideas we come up with. We’re growing tremendously.” And with organizations like the GRA stepping in and handling the entire green transformation process from start to finish, it is hard to say no. “[The GRA] does all the footwork for us,” says Lilly. From brainstorming ideas to advising restaurants as to which aspects to focus on to carrying out the project in a convenient, manageable way, businesses like the GRA are looking more and more appealing.
“We’re all about helping the environment,” says Lilly. “We all have to live on this planet.” And what better way to do so than by making simple strategic changes that will save energy, reduce waste and increase profits?
Keep an eye out — green is the color of the future.