Section 1: Getting staff on board
Section 2: Reducing food waste
Section 3: Reducing water waste
Section 4: Reducing electricity waste

Section 1: Getting staff on board
The first step to step to cutting waste at your restaurant is to get buy-in among your staff members, because they are the ones who will carry out your initiatives and they often have excellent ideas that can help the cause. Talk to your cooks, waitstaff, bartenders and busboys to get their perspectives. Often they will suggest solutions you had not considered.

It's also important to get customers and vendors on board. Most patrons will appreciate your efforts and will gladly do their part to help if you notify them politely ahead of time. Vendors are often willingly participants in your efforts to help the environment, because it improves their reputation as a "green" provider.

Once you have your staff on your side, you can focus on eco-strategies that work. The next section provide tips on how you can reduce food waste.

Section 2: Reducing food waste
Reducing food waste is perhaps the most obvious and largest area of your environmental efforts. You can save your establishment thousands of dollars, or perhaps even earn additional revenue by selling your waste to another company that uses it to feed farm animals. Here are some creative ways to reduce food waste:

• Compost food scraps and convert them into animal feed. You can give the vegetable waste to employees who may want to take it home for their personal compost piles. It's important to know that any scrap subsequently fed to animals must be sterilized in accordance with federal and local standards.
• Pack leftovers and takeout food in reusable containers and ask customers to "sign out" the packages and return them for reuse. Ask patrons to donate mugs for takeout coffee. Contact your local health officials before adopting such as practice to ensure that it is legal.
• Order corrugated boxes with a minimum of 40 percent recycled content.
• Separate waste oil from frying into containers that can be used to make soaps and cosmetics.
• Use biodegradable eating utensils that are made of 100 percent renewable sources, such as cornstarch and cottonseed. Encourage diners to dispose of these utensils in special recycling containers when they are done eating.

The next section deals with reducing water waste, an area that restaurateurs often overlook.

Section 3: Reducing water waste
Conserving water can save money and helps preserve this valuable resource, especially during summer months. Water conservation can be employed in three areas:

1. Kitchen
• Thaw frozen foods in the refrigerator, not under running water, if possible.
• Purchase a water-efficient dishwasher and wash only full loads.
• Soak pots and pans before handwashing them.
• Cook vegetables with a minimum amount of water and use the cooking water for soup stock, if possible.
• Train your staff to turn off the water promptly when they are not using it.

2. Plumbing
• Check for and repair leaks in faucets and toilets. To detect leaks in toilets, place a small amount of dark food coloring in the toilet tank. If coloring comes through the tank into the toilet bowl after 20 to 30 minutes, you have a leak.
• Install water-efficient toilets. Retrofit older toilets that use up to six gallons of water with each flush by filling a gallon container with water and placing it in the tank. The toilet will use a gallon less water each time it is flushed.
• Install aerators, which conserve water by injecting air into the water stream, in all sinks.

3. Dining room
• Ask customers if they would like water instead of automatically serving it.
• Refrain from dumping large amounts of ice into a sink and using hot water to melt it. Instead, use the ice to water your restaurant's plants.

Reducing electricity costs is another great way to improve the environment. The fourth section explains how you can cut your utility bills.

Section 4: Reducing electricity waste
Restaurant operators rarely consider utility bills as a primary operating cost. Yet this is one area where you can save thousands of dollars simply by evaluating your energy use and choosing energy-efficient alternatives. Here are three areas where you can reduce your energy costs:

1. Lighting
• Use fluorescent lighting for indoor and outdoor fixtures that last six to 10 times longer than regular bulbs. To eliminate the "hum," replace existing ballasts with electronic ballasts.
• Install timers or occupancy sensors in restrooms and storage rooms and any other rooms that frequently are not in use.
• Focus light on areas where it's most needed, such as under-cabinet lighting for kitchen workstations and counter tops under cabinets. Task lighting and reflectors are two items that help direct light.

2. Appliances
• To reduce the burden on your electrical system, don't turn on all electrical equipment at the same time.
• Make sure the size of an appliance suits your needs. A smaller, more energy-efficient piece of equipment might be a better value in the long run than a larger piece at a bargain price.

3. Air condition, heating and ventilation
• Reduce the number of times a day you adjust your thermostat by installing a programmable model.
• Change dirty air filters on air conditioners. Check your air conditioners' intake screens, coils and registers to be sure they are performing at peak condition.

By taking these steps, your restaurant will help the environment while providing great food and service to customers. Your customers will appreciate your eco-efforts.

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