In the fall, University of New Hampshire students enjoy locally sourced apples. READ ARTICLE SIDEBARS HERE

Not so now. Given global-warming concerns, rising energy prices and the expansion of green marketing efforts, Americans are growing more aware of how the choices they make affect the environment around them.

Foodservice professionals are no different. Operators in every industry segment are beginning to examine and analyze their business practices in an effort to make more environmentally conscious decisions. Reflecting the rapidly growing interest in sustainable business practices, the Boston-based Green Restaurant Association, which offers a green-restaurant certification program, tripled its membership in 2007. Executive Director Michael Oshman predicts that the organization will triple its membership again in 2008. READ OSHMAN'S R&I BLOG HERE

Creating a more-sustainable company requires that business owners think beyond day-to-day operations. Industry professionals R&I interviewed cited the need to look at sustainability as a holistic ideal in which many components, including community outreach and employee involvement, contribute to the betterment of the company and the environment.

New Hampshire’s Dairy Bar serves offers local chicken, greens and baked goods. READ ARTICLE SIDEBARS HERE

“Locavore,” The New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2007, describes a person dedicated to purchasing locally grown or produced foods—the idea being that local foods can taste better and often create less carbon in production and travel. Taking the locavore idea and applying it to foodservice takes perseverance.

Rob and Allie Levitt are dedicated to supporting local farms. The husband-and-wife team (Rob is the chef; Allie is the pastry chef) behind Mado in Chicago make trips to the city’s green market Wednesdays and Saturdays to supply their restaurant with local produce.

“It’s a lot different than other restaurants,” says Rob. “We don’t do a nightly order.” Instead, the Levitts rewrite the menu every day to spotlight the ingredients they find on their trips to the market. When they use up one featured ingredient, they simply turn to another.

Although Mado opened in April and therefore has not tested its produce-purchasing strategy during Chicago’s long winters, the Levitts aren’t deterred. Several farmers they buy from use hoop houses—portable, cylindrical greenhouses that allow them to grow produce such as squashes and braising greens when temperatures drop.

“In operating a business or in your day-to-day life, you have to make decisions on what you buy,” says Allie. “If we could spend our money on something that is greener, why not?”

Chef-owners Rob and Allie Levitt of Mado restaurant make regular trips to a Chicago greenmarket to buy produce for their daily menu posted on the chalkboard. READ ARTICLE SIDEBARS HERE

First, HUDS arranged for a local family farm to grow eight varieties of winter squash exclusively for the university. Next, it contracted with a local vendor to store the squash and deliver it to the school.

“We have a hybrid arrangement of having a relationship with a farmer and influencing what that farmer grows based on our needs while still including the middleman,” explains Ted Mayer, HUDS’ executive director. Once the program proves successful with winter squash, Mayer hopes to expand the agreement with the farm to include even more produce items.

Boosting the number of local food producers is a top initiative for the University of New Hampshire. So the Durham, N.H., school’s office of sustainability is working with dining services to increase the percent of local foodstuffs it buys, currently about 16%.

When the university’s landmark Dairy Bar, a casual breakfast, lunch and dinner facility, was redesigned to be a sustainable operation, local foods became a key component. “The Dairy Bar is different for us,” says Jon Plodzik, UNH’s director of dining. “We’re partnering with local producers to serve free-range chicken and organic greens, things that we ordinarily couldn’t offer in the [regular] dining program because it would be volume- and cost-prohibitive.” The menu also features bread from a local organic bakery. Once companies grow big enough, the hope is that they may be able to supply the larger campus operations.

Dan Whitaker, managing partner at The Inn at Lambertville Station in Lambertville, N.J., extols the virtues of the property’s compost pile. READ ARTICLE SIDEBARS HERE

If commercial spaces were cars, the commercial kitchen would be a Hummer. So says Richard Young, the senior engineer and director of education for the Food Service Technology Center in San Ramon, Calif., a research facility started by San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric.

“Reducing the energy and water intensity in commercial kitchens will be a big challenge for an industry that has been throwing away lots of resources,” Young says. But the reward is that energy- and water-savings strategies have a significant impact on the environment. Faced with the realities of rising energy costs, many chefs, restaurateurs and foodservice directors are trying to convert that Hummer into a hybrid.

Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell predicts that its new electric grills will conserve about 300 million gallons of water annually. The nearly 5,600-unit chain also estimates that using the grills will save each store $5,900 a year on energy.

“Learning to treat utility resources the same way that you treat food and labor costs is the big starting point for foodservice operators,” says Young.

Elephants Delicatessen, one of the first businesses in Portland, Ore., to compost its food scraps, has found many ways to conserve resources and is constantly looking for more. The three-unit operation runs its corporate vans on bio-diesel fuel and has a “green team”—a group of employees that meets regularly to talk about sustainable initiatives. These days, energy reduction is at the top of the discussion list.

“A restaurant as a business uses a disproportionate amount of energy,” says owner Anne Weaver. “That’s the biggest area, and it [can be addressed by] just using good energy-saving equipment.”

In addition to installing motion sensors on lights and purchasing energy-efficient kitchen equipment, the company decreased its water consumption 40% by inserting aerators into faucet heads, improving the flow of water while diminishing the amount used.

Weaver also has gambled on renewable energy. Her central kitchen currently runs on wind energy. Signing the five-year contract with the power company initially resulted in a 10% increase in her utility bill. However, as conventional energy rates continue to rise, she feels she will come out ahead.

Businesses also may be able to reduce energy use with existing equipment just by changing their everyday habits—not running ovens or fans unnecessarily, for example. When it is time to invest in new equipment, operators should consider the rate of return. “Do some economic evaluation and go for the practices that have the most-reasonable returns,” says Young. “You can add solar panels to the roof and get a 15-year return on investment or spend $50 for a low-flow, prerinse spray valve and get an ROI of about two weeks.”

When new equipment or a change in habits isn’t enough, some companies turn to carbon credits. In Chicago, Dan McGowan, president of Big Bowl Fresh Chinese and Thai, partnered with Chicago Climate Exchange to define the eight-unit chain’s carbon footprint, and then began buying carbon credits to offset it. The next step: Getting his team to start cutting its energy consumption.

“We wanted to offset our carbon output, but I don’t believe in a pay-to-play idea,” McGowan explains. “So let’s figure out what our output is, and now let’s try to reduce it.”

Dan Whitaker, managing partner at The Inn at Lambertville Station in Lambertville, N.J., extols the virtues of the property’s compost pile. “It’s exciting to see garbage get utilized into something positive,” he says. “Our herb garden flourishes, and the kitchen gets excited about using herbs.” In addition, “We’ve reduced our Dumpster capacity by 60%.”

During the day, the kitchen staff fill yellow bins marked for compost with vegetable scraps, then bring them out to the compost heap, which resides in a remote part of the property. A gardener turns it with topsoil and wood chips until the nutrient-rich dirt is ready for the garden.

Not everyone has the space to turn kitchen scraps into compost. But more businesses are finding ways to introduce composting by partnering with a third party. What recycling is to operators today, composting very well could be to them tomorrow.

In Boston, Northeastern University composts or recycles more than half of its waste. For its composting needs, the university switched to corn-based biodegradable to-go containers and contracted with a local composter. The key in introducing Northeastern’s compost program, says Tim Cooney, resident district manager for campus dining services (a Chartwells account), was working closely with the university. “Without their assistance and collaboration, it would have been more difficult,” Cooney says.

Reducing waste also comes from taking pre-emptive measures. Stanford [University] Dining in Stanford, Calif., launched “Love Food, Hate Waste,” a program in partnership with the student group Stanford Project on Hunger.

“We place students and employees in front of tray returns and scrape [discarded] food into bins before the students’ eyes to raise awareness about food waste,” explains Eric Montell, executive director of Stanford Dining. Students are encouraged to take only the food they know they will eat and come back for seconds if they’re still hungry.

Aside from composting and consumer education, companies are also making their recycling efforts more efficient. For Aramark’s stadium accounts, “pickers” (employees who pick up garbage left in the stands after a game) carry two bags—one for trash, one for recycling. In addition, recycling bins are located next to trash cans and within easy reach of fans and employees, explains Pat Walsh, vice president of facility services for Aramark’s Sports and Entertainment division. Stadiums that changed from limited recycling programs to comprehensive programs saw recycling rates increase by as much as 700%, Walsh says.

Composting still is out of reach for most large venues, he says, but that too is likely to change as municipalities adopt more-sophisticated waste-removal systems. Says Walsh, “The key is where the recycling centers are located—and in the long run, the composting sites.”