Green Restaurant Association's Five Steps to Green Status

Written by Bill Roth of Entrepreneur.com

Restaurants account for one-third of electricity consumption within the retail market space, making them the largest single user. And each year the average restaurant generates 100,000 pounds of garbage while consuming approximately 300,000 gallons of water. Restaurants have an important role to help the United States achieve a cleaner environment, conserve water supplies and reduce our dependence on increasingly expensive fossil fuels.

Business opportunities in today's "Green Economic Revolution" abound. It's a grass roots phenomenon with restaurants blazing a path of innovation in sustainability that produces cost savings and, most importantly, alignment with their customers' increasing desire to buy green. Most of the lessons learned apply to all businesses.

One of the leaders in the Green Economic Revolution is Michael Oshman, president of the non-profit Green Restaurant Association.

"There is a grass roots explosion of interest in sustainability among restaurant owners, suppliers and customers over the last two years," Oshman says. "In 2007, we tripled our memberships, and 2008 looks like we will triple in size yet again. We have individual restaurants and national chains calling us."

Thanks to 18 years of research on sustainable alternatives, the GRA can offer the technology and supply-chain expertise to craft an implementation plan for any restaurant, restaurant chain or its suppliers.

"The goal is to get the ball rolling," Oshman says. "Not every solution works for every restaurant. Some restaurants are in a position to be more aggressive when implementing sustainability solutions, and some can't. Our association is here to help a restaurant get started and to grow their scale of effort every year."