Yesterday the Green Restaurant Association was very pleased to announce their new five-year green partnership with restaurant management company Restaurant Associates. The company, which facilitates eateries at many of the country’s favorite institutions, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Lincoln Center, has pledged to eliminate polystyrene (styrofoam) from all of their 110 locations, develop a thorough recycling system, and implement an environmental education program for staff, among other initiatives.
“Restaurant Associates is truly a leader in this industry,” says Michael Oshman, founder and CEO of the Green Restaurant Association. “It’s one thing for a company to make a statement that they want to ‘go green’. It is another to contractually and publicly commit to having all of its locations implement the necessary environmental steps to become Certified Green Restaurants .”
The Green Restaurant Association offers certification standards for restaurants based on an extensive sustainable point system, with points awarded for water efficiency, waste reduction and recycling, sustainable materials, sustainable food systems, energy, disposables, and chemical/pollution reduction. They also provide green consulting for companies interested in implementing sustainable practices, as well as a nationwide database of certified green restaurants as part of their Dine Green program.
You can also read Restaurant Associates’s take on their new sustainable program! It’s great to see restaurants embracing sustainable business practices. Good on ya!
~Jennifer Heigl