How to Earn Green Points
How do you know that you’re focusing on the right waste management priorities? Want to be greener and wondering how to get there? Can’t afford to lose any time and need the biggest win for limited dollars?
To answer these questions, you don’t need to start from scratch. Operators should check out a new class of green restaurant and foodservice “standards” (such as Green Seal’s GS-46 standard and the National Restaurant Association’s soon-to-be-revealed Greener Restaurants program) that provide excellent prioritized checklists for your waste management toolkit. These tools leverage the knowledge and experience of industry experts, providing a roadmap that shows what matters most and which steps simply should not be missed along the journey. They also speak to foodservice sustainability and green practices beyond waste management.
Additionally, there are other tools which address specialized foodservice areas such as convention centers, colleges and hospitals (the convention industry APEX standards, AASHE STARS program, Green Guide for Healthcare, respectively). The US EPA also has a powerful central organizing framework called the Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy which helps prioritize.
At LeanPath, we’re excited that most every one of these standards recommends tracking or auditing food waste as a first step in a waste management program. They recognize that waste prevention is the place to start and you can’t make any progress toward that goal without food waste tracking. (Learn more about LeanPath’s automated tracking tools.)
So check out these standards and compare with what you are currently doing. Are you missing a key area? Are you spending a lot of resources on something that doesn’t rate highly or appear at all? Are you addressing food waste prevention by tracking all your pre-consumer food waste every day?
Once you’ve done a self-assessment using the checklists provided by these tools, you can decide whether you want to pursue an official certification or recognition. Green Seal offers formal, third-party certified recognition while most of the other players allow for self-certification. What’s important is to tap into the knowledge underlying these standards first and then, once you’ve started down the path, go get credit for your hard work.
