Green Restaurant Association Can Help You Maintain Your Sustainable Lifestyle When Dining Out

This is the first in a series of articles designed to make it easy to maintain a sustainable eating lifestyle after you learn what it is. When we cook at home, we have control over ingredients, cleaning methods, cooking utensils and waste disposal, so it is easy to eat sustainably when we eat in.

When we dine out, we have to trust the restaurant to take care of these things. The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) is making this easier for us.  Recently they introduced their Green Restaurant R 4.0 Program that certifies a food service establishment meets minimum standards for the following:

1. Water Efficiency
2. Waste Reduction and Recycling
3. Sustainable Furnishings and Building Materials
4. Sustainable Food
5. Energy
6. Disposables
7. Chemical and Pollution Reduction

Source: Green Restaurant Association

It’s still our job to decide if we like the taste of the food served in GRA Certified Restaurants.

Also, we’ll find it easier to spot these restaurants in big cities—look for the GRA seal.

I searched on DineGreen from my iPhone after yoga class and found a restaurant almost next door to my gym.

We no longer need to worry about where the food comes from, how it’s stored, how it’s disposed of, or whether even takeout food will be handed to us in styrofoam containers.

To carry the GRA seal, a restaurant must earn a total of 100 points in multiple categories, have a full-scale recyling program, be free of Polystyrene Foam (you probably call it styrofoam) and submit to yearly education by the GRA. 

Best of all, restaurants carrying the GRA seal must improve by 10% each year to maintain their rating, so each year you can expect your favorite green restaurant to get better in each of these 7 areas.

Chain restaurants may have different ratings at each location, because chain locations are built at different times. Also likely is that restaurants may have been built in rental properties that are still working on Green Building Codes and may not be able to meet GRA standards right now.  You can feel confident that this will improve over time.

The seal will usually be visible on the outside of the restaurant near the stickers indicating which credit cards are accepted.

It may be enough for you to dine at restaurants that simply display the seal. The establishments that pay for the inspections leading to a star or chartered rating generally serve local food and often incorporate organic ingredients into their menus.

The stars indicate that energy reduction efforts are being made by the restaurant, possibly by using Energy Star rated appliances and working with their local utility company to perform cleaning at times when energy use is lowest in their local area.  These restaurants are also using green chemicals to maintain cleanliness. In addition, a full scale recyling program is in place.

If 2 or 3 stars have been awarded and the rating remains the same each year, you can feel confident that the restaurant will be getting greener and greener.

It is currently unusual to find a 4 star rating, but we can look forward to seeing new restaurants obtaining this level of sustainability when they are designed and built specifically to meet GRA standards.

By all means, look for GRA ratings at the restaurants you already go to, as well as the ones listed near places you may live or travel, so you can maintain your sustainable food practices, deliciously.

The idea for this article comes from a seminar by the Alumni Association of Columbia Business School’s Sustainability Committee. As one of several committee VPs, we’ve created a series of events during each academic year with the theme, “Making Green from Green.” This year, if you attend 4 out of the 5 events, you receive a certificate.