The most important thing I’ve done in my life about going green is to teach both my kids and my students about it. If we can convince the next generation that preserving the earth is a priority, then they will act on it. We must think about using everything, not just the cardboard container that gets thrown out, but also that chicken carcass that we just finished butchering. Everything has a use and a place.

At the Restaurant, we propose lots of gently braised dishesn that do not requires lot of energy used like gas, electric! We turn off all the lights and use tall candles! The room becomes in fact so romantic! I wish there would be a program to recycle compost able trash from Restaurants. So much can be placed back on the ground and used to fertilize in an organic manner!

We have been composting our food waste for about a year. It is amazing how much coffee grounds, orange rinds, apple peels and egg shells we produce in a few days. It is nice to know that it is not going to the dump but being turned into compost that will in turn be used to grow more food.
Floriole Cafe & Bakery1220 W WebsterChicago, IL 60614Phone: (773) 883 1313M 8am-2pm, T-F 7am-5:30pm, Sat 8am-5:30pm, Sun 8am-4pmFacebook Twitter____________________________________________________________

We're in our 3rd year of growing herbs and small vegetables on our roof for use in the restaurant and catering business. We are also in talks with a neighborhood school to implement a community garden very close to the restaurant that will be tended in conjunction with the students and used by our restaurant and the school.

the 2 most important initiatives to me have always been buying as local as
possible, and recycling. We do this at home, and at work. Buying local
supports small business, supprts local economy, and keeps fuel consumption
down. Recycling is a no brainer. the amount of boxes, paper products and
plastic items that come in weekly need to be reused, not trashed.


**

In Kansas City, we are fortunate to have glass bottle recycling drop-offs throughout the metro thanks to John McDonald, founder of Boulevard Brewing Co. Ripple Glass now recycles millions of pounds of glass every year and is making a huge difference in our community and has started spreading outside our community. At Story, all beer bottles, wine bottles and other glass goes right into a Ripple Glass bin nightly as part of closing duties.

Besides our work as a Right Bite sustainable seafood partner with the Shedd Aquarium and our 100% sustainable seafood program, I am always looking for ways to reduce our environmental footprint, but as always my favorite initiative is to expand our family of local farms. In the last few months, we've added Spence Farm and Stewards of the Land as suppliers, and have joined the chef's group GroundUp to help facilitate the work of the Spence Farm Foundation. My primary interest in this work is to get more young farmers into the business and help them find markets in Chicago. We've also recently scuttled carry out save for a couple of sandwiches and soups that can be taken with minimal packaging. I have direct personal knowledge of the mountains of garbage that even one restaurant can produce through its carry out business. It's one thing to have a sandwich wrapped in a piece of paper, it's another thing entirely to have a shopping bag filled with a dozen different boxes and plastic containers to provide one meal for a family of 2-4 people. One of the things we have to get over as a society if we are going to make progress on environmental affairs is to get past this culture of carry out. Don't feel like cooking? Go out and dine in a restaurant that sources its food responsibly. Save the packaging and enjoy a meal out. People may want to order carry out of composed dishes and be happy throwing out (or even recycling requires energy - the first "R" in the triangle is "Reduce!") the packaging, but since I have my own restaurant I have the power to say Not From My Restaurant. In past occupations I've witnessed and felt some sense of incredulity at the amount of garbage a carry out restaurant can produce. Now I'm in a position to make that decision for myself. We're checking out of the HMR business and focusing on truly minimizing our environmental footprint. C'mon down and join us for a meal. We'll clean up, do the dishes, everything. You'll have that much less trash to take out next Tuesday.

I think the most important thing I can do for Earth Day is teach my children. We already recycle and include our kids both at home and in the restaurants, but we also mark the day by acknowledging and rewarding the efforts they've made throughout the year to recycle and reuse.

This, possibly, is the most important and frustrating thing about running a
restaurant. Its so hard to retrofit, and all of the appliances burn
through electricity and gas. I have a top of the line fryer that saves
energy and gas. It has a filter on the bottom so I get extra DAYS out of
my oils. Believe me, that adds up over the year. I have been recycling my
oil through a great local company named Recyclemybar Chicago. Great guys
and they have multiple uses for their oil. Last summer I installed 2
hot/cold air distributors to alleviate the amount of gas needed to run the
furnace. I have switched out all of my high energy units for more
efficient ones, and I think my next step may be to go solar somehow. I
just purchased a cart for my bike so I can hit the farmers markets without
burning through gas. At home, I sold my second car and opted for
public/foot/bike transportation and will be purchasing an electric car next
fall when it is released. At that point I will sell my current car. This
is a movement that we must all get behind. If we cant get the food we need
because we destroyed the atmosphere we will all be out of work. And, that
is a possibility


**

happy with our new three star green certification from the Green Restauarant Association, we continue to plug away at our environmentally friendly initiatives. we have started using Collective Resources to reduce our waste even more. we are looking to divert about 98% of all of our waste to recycling and compost.

we have also just purchased a plot of land at Montrose Green where we will start growing some produce, only a block away.



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