By his own admission, if I had asked Steve Simon a year ago what his Fifth Group Restaurants were doing to minimize their carbon footprint, he would have said, "Nothing." True, they were winning every award and honor out there for their food, but at evening's end every tasty morsel that didn't fill the collective belly went into the landfills. 

It wasn't that Simon didn't believe in the value of sustainable practices; after all, he was recycling at home. And the group is a good corporate citizen in the community; take a look at all the charities they support or read about some of their recent activities. It was just that once operations are put into place, changing them is a bit like altering the course of continental drift. Not easy.

But what a difference a year makes!

Since being invited to join the board of the Green Foodservice Alliance (GFA) last year, Simon has been steadily steering his winning team of restaurants into the green lane. Recycling has been implemented in three of the restaurants and the catering company; spent grease is going to a local biodiesel producer; one restaurant is composting its waste and others will be online to compost within the next few weeks. Not bad, huh?

Ecco, that purveyor of luscious pastas and more, is the star of the Fifth Group sustainable show. Ecco recycles 70% of their garbage and composts the other 30% for a total waste reduction of...oh...about 100%. These and other green practices have helped the restaurant to become the first recipient of the GFA's certification for sustainable practices in the industry. This GFA program helps restaurants that want to improve soften their step on the planet by showing them how to make the incremental changes that add up to environmental best practices over time (see Ecco - from zero to 100%, above).

According to Simon, this has gotten a lot easier to do over the past couple of years, because an increase in awareness has led to a greater availability of services. For instance, dependable waste companies that offer commercial single stream recycling (everything in one container and they do the sorting) were rare even a year ago. Now they're competing with one another for the business. This service has made recycling an affordable option for restaurants but changes still take time and figuring out the details, like where to place a dumpster, isn't always as easy as it might sound. 

Happily, the changes that are happening are cumulative, and they're synergistic. When The Original El Taco made the switch to recycling it took the entire strip center where it's located with it, effectively diverting from landfills the waste created by ten or eleven stores.

That kind of reverberation into the surrounding community seems to be typical of greening initiatives. It's human nature to strive for excellence and to be inspired by the example set by leaders like Ecco, who pave the way for the rest of us.

Way to go.