Sustainable+Business+Guide+-+Restaurant-compressed_1

GUIDE CHICAGO - 47TH WARD ECIVRES DOOF & STNARUATSER SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS THE PURPOSE The aim of this guide is to encourage restaurants, bars, and cafes to consider incorporating more sustainable business practices into the operations of the restaurant We aim to provide strategies and ideas for practices to include, as well as tips and tricks on how to incorporate them for new and existing restaurants We will discuss simple but effective ways to reduce energy use and waste, how to source sustainable food, and how sustainability can become part of the business model THE REASON Embracing sustainable business practices can be daunting, but this guide will assist with the pegging question, “Why is sustainability important?” According to the Corporate Social Responsibility guide, consumers are 87% more likely to trust a company and 88% be more loyal to a company that supports a social and environmental issue This is especially important to small businesses like those in the 47th ward because word-of mouth advertising is crucial to their success According to a study conducted by IBM, “69% of environmentally-conscious buyers willingly pay a premium for recycled products, and more than half of these buyers are ready to change their shopping habits to reduce negative impact on the environment.” Lastly, according to the Mckinsey survey on business sustainability, businesses overall tend to see a reduction in operation costs and an increase in efficiency It has been shown over and over again that businesses that adopt sustainable practices can perform better than those who continue with business as usual The number one reason that businesses adopt sustainable business practices is that they can save money Restaurants will reduce costs by increasing energy efficiency, water efficiency, reducing carbon emissions, and reducing packaging TABLE OF CONTENTS WATER - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -water audit -water saving retrofits -case study ENERGY - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -smart thermostats -energy audit -motion sensing -train your staff WASTE - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -waste audit -donate food -compost -use/discount leftovers -small tips -case studies -hand dryers OTHER - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -localize food -train your staff -IGBA certification WATER WATER AUDIT Assessing your water usage - Restaurants generally use a lot of water, so you may want to consider doing a water audit The water calculator from the Alliance for Water Efficiency calculates how much water you use and helps highlight areas that can be made more efficient The calculator is free, and though it is meant for residential use, it can also give your restaurant valuable information Resources such as the Consultivo Water Audit or Alliance for Water Efficiency's water calculator can help you assess your usage WATER SAVING RETROFITS Installing WaterSense products such as toilets, faucets, and pre-rinse spray valves help to save water and money WaterSense toilets use around 1.28 gallons per flush, while toilets installed before 1994 use 3.5 gallons per flush WaterSense faucets use less than 1.5 gallons a minute, while standard faucets use 2.2 gallons per minute By changing your faucets to more efficient models, you can save 570 gallons per year! Replacing these fixtures can not only save water, but save you a good chunk on your water bill Upgrade to an ENERGY STAR certified dishwasher These use an average of 1,000 fewer gallons per week than old inefficient commercial dishwashers Resources like this page from the EPA offer more in depth information on the WaterSense label and also provide lists of WaterSense products CASE STUDY Beans and Bagels Café uses all new appliances that have been purchased in the past years and are ENERGY STAR certified 2 ENERGY SMART THERMOSTATS Installing a smart thermostat can help you save energy and money on your electric bill You can control the temperature remotely from your smart phone, and allow the thermostat to automatically adjust based on habits Smart thermostats have shown us that a degree change over hours can save 1% on your total energy bill For help with installation and tuning, ComEd offers assistance Interested in finding a smart thermostat? Look here ENERGY AUDIT A free facility assessment is available if you are a ComEd Customer An engineer will come out and help identify areas to improve your restaurant’s energy efficiency They will likely check your restaurant lighting (and whether they are motion sensor controlled), HVAC system, kitchen appliances, and more to make sure everything is as energy efficient as possible MOTION SENSING Installing motion activated lights in hallways and bathrooms helps conserve energy by only having the lights on when Find more info about the energy audit here that area is in use There are a wide variety of motion activated lights on the market TRAIN YOUR STAFF Training your staff to ensure that lights are turned off when an area is not in use, and that equipment is only on when it needs to be can both save energy and save you money on your electric bill WASTE WASTE AUDIT Weigh your trash! Auditing your garbage may seem strange, but it is a great way to better understand the waste your restaurant creates and help identify waste that can be recycled or composted You can this yourself by weighing and sorting through your garbage bins to determine how much of various items are thrown away and if they should be disposed of in another way Conducting a waste audit can also expose areas where you may want to switch to compostable alternatives so you are producing less waste Less waste also means more savings because you won’t be paying as much for packaging that you deem unnecessary Increasing recycling can offset the number of garbage pickups per week for your restaurant This will help you keep the cost of garbage low even when adding recycling COMPOST Set up a compost bin or schedule a pickup! Composting diverts food waste from going to a landfill where it will not decompose correctly and will release methane emissions If you are able, you can start to compost on-site if you plan on or are already growing some of your own produce There are also commercial compost pick-up programs like Collective Resource Compost that provides a 32 gallon bin for your kitchen to compost, and charges $24 dollars to pick up each bin Resources - WasteNot Compost and Collective Resource Compost provide services for businesses interested in composting SMALL TIPS Switch over your takeout containers from styrofoam (most municipal recycling programs not accept styrofoam) to biodegradable paper, recycleable plastic or recyclable aluminum Case Study - Beans & Bagels, a bagel Swap the disposable menus for reusables! Or, you can ditch the and coffee shop in the 47th Ward, uses physical menu altogether and the commercial composting services encourage customers use their phone to provided by Collective Resource scan a QR code on the table that is Composting linked to a virtual menu HAND DRYERS DONATE FOOD Replace paper towels in your restroom with electric hand dryers This will greatly reduce Donate to local food banks! Food insecurity the amount of waste you, your leftover food from restaurants and staff, and your customers produce households in order to help combat these when using the restroom If this is issues, while eliminating the amount of edible not an option, consider using food going to landfills is a real issue, especially in a large city such as Chicago Places around the city accept recycled paper towels and/or having a bin to compost the paper Chicago's Food Bank is a great place to towels donate leftover food In addition, Food Recovery Network at Loyola University Chicago also accepts food donations USE/DISCOUNT LEFTOVERS Day old pastries might not be fresh out of the oven, but at a discounted price, who can refuse a delicious scone or muffin?! Selling day old pastries can help minimize food waste and keep costs lower for the business You can also try incorporating recipes that use food scraps in them Making veggie broth out of odds and ends of vegetables is a great place to start! Making your prep stations more efficient can also greatly reduce the amount of food scraps you produce - for example, there are various ways to cut produce that maximize the amount of usable food CASE STUDIES The Pasta Bowl partners with Green Grease to recycle their used cooking oil into biodiesel They also have moved to request-only for plastic utensils and make sure to recycle as much as possible Beans and Bagels composts using Collective Resource Composting, and puts any leftovers to good use They also encourage their patrons to bring reusable cups and mugs! OTHER TIPS LOCALIZE FOOD IMPORTATION Local, in-season produce is best! When you buy local, seasonal produce from small farmers, you are supporting Chicago’s local food economy Buying seasonal produce helps ensure that the crops are not being shipped long distances to reach you Sourcing from small farms that practice organic or sustainable farming also adds to the overall sustainability of your business Contacting local farmers online, reaching out to other restaurants to see which farmers they source from, or attending local farmers markets to build relationships with the farmers themselves are all great ways to kickstart local, sustainable sourcing of produce Resources include farmers markets in the 47th Ward, and localharvest.org TRAIN YOUR STAFF Sustainability can't be achieved alone! Having staff who understand sustainability and the motives behind transitioning to a more sustainable business model will make it much easier to operate a restaurant that has minimal impact on the environment while also making it an exciting challenge for everyone involved Training staff on why sustainability is important in the restaurant business and on specific ways that they can ensure the restaurant is running sustainably will make a world of difference Help them ensure and report on if ingredients are being used efficiently, and train them to turn off the water and lights when they are not in use IGBA CERTIFICATION The Illinois Green Business Association offers a certification program that verifies your business is operating with sustainable business practices The certification lasts years, and during that time the IGBA helps market your business as green and helps you network and share ideas with other certified businesses.The IGBA helps celebrate your sustainability successes while also helping you reach your goals to become a greener business Use this link to find the checklist the IGBA use to certify restaurants and cafes MARKETING Marketing is important! Customers care about what they buy and who they buy it from, so let them know that you are operating sustainably Tell consumers about how you are saving energy and water, about how you are reducing or diverting waste, and what your sustainability goals are for the future GREEN CLEANING Ditch the toxic chemicals Many commercial cleaning products and disinfectants contain harmful toxins that can not only be harmful to humans when they are consistently exposed, but they are also detrimental to the environment Ditching the harmful chemical cleaners for EcoLab products which are specially-formulated commercial cleaning products that are better for the environment, or looking for the EPA SaferChoice seal on cleaning product bottles are two ways to reduce the impact you have on the environment while still keeping your space clean and sanitized INTERIOR DESIGN Reuse and Reclaim! If you are planning on replacing any furniture in your restaurant or cafe, consider donating your old furniture and opting for reclaimed options instead of buying brand new It will add character and uniqueness to the space and is much more sustainable! Inclusivity is crucial Another great tip for CASE STUDY Beans and Bagels ensures that all of their cleaning supplies (besides bleach which is required by the Department of Health) are either certified EPA SaferChoice or GreenSeal Certified interior design is to offer signage in Uncommon Ground's rooftop farm multiple languages for recycling and waste webpage is a great example of sorting to ensure accessibility and how to market your business' inclusivity sustainability efforts! 10 ABOUT THE GUIDE This guide was a semester project conducted by Loyola University Chicago students Tim Ventrella, Cosette Ellis, Claudia Jreisat, Giorgio Sanfratello, and Ana Huter in partnership with the Illinois Green Business Association and the 47th Ward’s Alderman’s Office Our overall goal is to encourage businesses in the area to adopt environmentally sustainable practices through financial incentives, strategic planning, and the increase in company value We hope this guide was helpful in informing and encouraging businesses to engage in sustainable practices GUIDE UPDATES To find an updated list of resources that you can use in conjunction with this guide, please visit this link If you have any suggestions for additional resources or case studies, email info@aldermanmartin.com