New construction offers the chance to maximize efficiency.

“Most people think how much more does it cost to design and build a green restaurant,” says Chris Arnold, spokesman for Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill, which has launched efforts to construct more-sustainable units. “We’ve sort of taken the other approach. Our opening cost is about $900,000, [so] working within those parameters, what can we do to be more sustainable?”

Having put this approach into action, Chipotle is opening its first restaurant to earn certification through the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. Located in the Chicago exurb of Gurnee, Ill., the unit—slated to open this month—features not only the recycled drywall, low-VOC (volatile organic compound) paints and tankless water heaters that other Chipotle units have incorporated over the last five years, but also a 60-foot wind turbine that will provide part of the restaurant’s electrical power.

“The aim was to show ourselves what’s possible if we put all these pieces and parts together into one restaurant,” Arnold says.

Assistance from outside parties was critical in getting the Chipotle project off the ground: “Not everyone will let you do [a wind turbine],” Arnold says, recognizing the Village of Gurnee’s support for the development. As more municipalities, suppliers and contractors become better educated about sustainable design, more are willing and able to help operators meet their green goals, whether through construction subsidies, free installation of in-test green technology or guidance in selecting sustainable building materials.

Cullen’s Upscale American Grille in Houston uses eco-friendly insulation to reduce energy costs.

For operators that have made the commitment to incorporating elements of sustainable design, going greener requires patience, flexibility and a willingness to take a long view on costs.

In the kitchen of Carvers Cafe at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, Xanterra recently installed variable-speed-drive exhaust fans as an energy-saving measure. The speed of the fans—and, thus, the energy they use—can be adjusted according to the grill’s needs. “If you’re doing 50 hamburgers, it’s running on 80%; if you’re doing 100, it’s running on 100%,” Lane says. The system cost $20,000—the high price being due to its size—but Lane says it will pay for itself in two years.

A focus on future energy savings is also what helped inspire and fuel Cullen’s Upscale American Grille’s three-year, $17-million restaurant development in Houston. Open since March, Cullen’s sits on a 4.9-acre property and boasts 11 banquet rooms and a dining room that can seat 290.

To maximize energy efficiency, Cullen’s walls are made of 7.5-inch concrete slabs. A ½-inch layer of foam and a 6-inch layer of environmentally friendly spray-in cellulose (made in part from recycled cardboard) add extra insulation in the walls, and builders installed three times as much insulation in the ceilings as is required by local code.

Additionally, the cardboard insulation contains boric acid, a natural pest repellent. “It was one more thing I didn’t have to worry about,” says Cullen’s general manager Ryan Roberts, who oversaw the build.

In getting the project completed, however, Roberts found himself up against the same obstacles other operators say they face. Houston is known more for its oil than for its sustainability leadership, Roberts says, and implementing green technology meant re-educating local builders and officials.

Waterless urinals, in particular, took some explaining. “Houston did not allow that,” he says. “We had to get special permission to use them.” With their installation, Roberts estimates that Cullen’s will save 200,000 gallons of water versus conventional urinals in a year’s time.

Though sustainable design and the accessibility of green building materials have come a long way, operators find that there are still limitations they face and compromises they must make when trying to execute environment-friendly designs.

“You pick and choose what you use,” says Cullen’s Roberts, who worked with architects to source wall coverings made from cork and flooring made from recycled tires. “Some things that are green just don’t look upscale.” Case in point: compact fluorescent light bulbs, which can cast a less-than-warm glow on a space. Yet Cullen’s team was able to find a greener alternative to conventional bulbs in LED lights. “We’ve almost got about twice as many light bulbs as most restaurants, but [they] use half the energy,” says Roberts.

In Chicago, Bill Post, founder and president of Roti Mediterranean Grill, found out through trial and error that not all green flooring is right for every facility. “We felt that it was really our place to be as eco-friendly as we could possibly be,” Post says. One element of that commitment was the installation of cork flooring.

Because the material is made from the bark of cork oak trees—which can produce cork for as long as 200 years—its production doesn’t contribute to deforestation. Unfortunately for Roti, “The cork floor was very warm and inviting but not really receptive to heavy traffic or water.” Not long after installing the cork, the restaurant had to replace it with an epoxy-cement floor.

In Burlington, Vt., environmental enthusiasts Shannon Reilly and July Sanders had to make similar adjustments to their green goals when they set out to turn a dark, below-street-level former nightclub into a breakfast and lunch bistro in 2006. “We wanted to take the way that we lived outside of work and put it in here,” Sanders says. That meant striving to have all of the bistro’s furniture made locally—within a few hundred miles of Reilly and Sanders’ newly leased space. It also meant purchasing LEED-certified carpet and seeking out environmentally friendly paint strippers and paints from local providers.

Reilly and Sanders sourced their furniture easily enough: A Vermont vendor whom they had tagged to be their maple-syrup supplier also owned a furniture-manufacturing plant, and the co-owners bought tables and chairs from him. The two also located a biodegradable paint stripper, but finding a local source for low- or no-VOC paints proved more difficult.

Eco-friendly paints “weren’t really popular,” says Sanders, so the entrepreneurs made the choice to keep their dollars in the community and purchase conventional paints from a local company rather than buy low-VOC paints from a national chain business. “This is our community, and we want what’s best for our community,” Sanders says. The two are satisfied with their decision: Two years later their restaurant, Magnolia, is up and running, and their paint supplier has become the only one in the area to carry a non-VOC paint.

Green-minded operators emphasize sustainable design for its own merits—the chance to minimize their operation’s carbon footprint plus connect with and support local manufacturers. That doesn’t mean, however, that green efforts have to go unheralded. “There are two reasons for everything you do,” says Roberts.

Operators can realize self-promotion opportunities from their sustainable-design initiatives, even if installing an eco-friendly carpet isn’t as “sexy” as menuing grass-fed beef and cage-free eggs. Magnolia, for example, won a commercial restoration award in 2007 from the local Preservation Burlington organization and is the first restaurant in Vermont to be certified by the Boston-based Green Restaurant Association—accolades it proudly describes on its Web site.

Back in Gurnee, Chipotle is garnering attention from local media for its turbine-powered new unit, the most conspicuously “green” restaurant Chipotle has built, Arnold says. And although the chain will seek the increasingly recognized benchmark of LEED certification for five additional units in development, going green remains a gradual process. “The core of it,” says Arnold, “is just this idea of constant improvement.”