One of the restaurant partners - Leslie Silverglide, shares with EcoAsia their restaurants’ green practise.
    
1) What inspired you to set up Mixt Greens Restaurant?

I started Mixt Greens in April 2006 with my partners to serve delicious, gourmet, and healthy meals and build a business with an environmentally sustainable core. Every aspect of our operation minimises our environmental impact and we strive to be a leader and model for other businesses to follow.

Our vision is to be the premiere quick-service restaurant serving gourmet salads and sandwiches in the United States, while practicing and promoting environmental stewardship through business.

Our mission is to introduce and enable customers to experience fresh, quality organic, local, and seasonal ingredients offered as innovative, gourmet meals while maintaining the company’s environmental ethic.

2) Please tell us what makes your business green? How do you deal with the waste? What has Mixt Greens Restaurant's done to lighten its environmental footprint?

Organic, Local, Seasonal Food: Mixt Greens sources ingredients from local farms where ingredients are grown and raised in an environmentally sustainable manner, and are the freshest, highest quality available. We also source as many organic and seasonal ingredients as possible. We do not use large conglomerate companies that pollute during transportation, require extra packaging for goods, use preservatives, and support inhumane and ecologically damaging farming practices.

Green Building: Mixt Greens focuses on energy efficiency, indoor air quality, water conservation and resource conservation in each restaurant build-out. We use zero-volatile organic compound (VOC) paint that doesn’t off-gas toxic chemicals, formaldehyde-free plywood, optimisation of energy performance in lighting with compact fluorescents, use of a dual zone HVAC system, installation of Energy Star rated equipment and appliances, installation of sensors and timers for lights, use of rapidly renewable and recycled materials such as tables made from 100% recycled detergent bottles, palm wood finishes, and concrete flooring with high-fly ash content, utilisation of natural light and daylight, temperature and ventilation controls, and all wood products are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certified.

Every aspect of Mixt Greens operation minimises their environmental impact and they strive to be a leader and model for other businesses to follow.

Compostable Packaging: ALL Mixt Greens packaging is 100% compostable and biodegradable – this includes all containers, utensils, cups, lids, bags, straws, and portion cups. Our packaging is made with a corn biopolymer that uses 62-68 % fewer fossil fuel resources in its manufacturing and generates fewer greenhouse gases than traditional plastics.

Green Cleaning: Mixt Greens uses non-toxic and biodegradable cleaners from Method, the San Francisco based manufacturer of green cleaning products in all the restaurants.

Carbon Emission Offsetting: Mixt Greens mitigates its carbon emissions by purchasing renewable energy credits through Renewable Choice; a program that guarantees the amount of energy being used by Mixt Greens comes from wind power.

Eliminating Landfill Waste: Mixt Greens has a comprehensive compost and recycling program that enables each restaurant to divert over 90% of all waste from landfills. Employees are trained to properly sort waste materials and all trash stations consist of compost, recycle, and trash bins with pictorial descriptions for proper disposal.

Community Outreach: Mixt Greens supports non-profit environmental organisations through food donations, fund raising events, and program awareness.

3) What have been some of the biggest challenges of maintaining high standards of social and environmental responsibility?

Balancing the additional cost of sustainable ingredients and environmentally responsible operations and customer perception.  Also, there is a problem with ‘greenwashing’ where businesses claim to ‘be green’, but in fact are not. I have seen businesses that claim to use organic food and don't, claim to compost and have regular garbage bags in their compost cans and companies that claim to be a completely 'green' but in reality only one aspect of their company is environmentally responsible which is misleading to the public.  

We are constantly trying to reduce our environmental footprint and be as sustainable as possible.  We are investigating and experimenting with new green building options. We are using in-store signage to educate our customers and encourage them to change their behaviours.  We define and describe different topics, such as green building or organic agriculture and post suggestions on how to live more sustainably.  We are also working with other businesses around our restaurants to begin composting and supporting local environmental organisations through donations and event support.

One of the restaurant partners - Leslie Silverglide. ALL Mixt Greens packaging is 100% compostable and biodegradable.

4) As a restaurant owner, what do you think needs to happen to further improve on the local F&B industry in order to lower the impact on the environment? What do you think you can do to change?

Local government needs to pass legislation that favours environmentally responsible operations. Customers need to demand sustainability from all businesses and there needs to be a system of accountability that measures and compares different businesses.

We hope the new administration will pass legislation that will require and enable Americans to live more sustainably. We would love to see more 'green' collar job creation, large scale renewable energy projects, stronger environmental requirements that all companies must follow, and programs to reduce carbon emission and encourage energy efficiency.  We would like our government to be an environmental innovator for other countries to emulate. 

We believe that we set the bar in environmentally sustainable restaurant operations and hope to continue to be a model for other businesses to follow and push the bar higher.

5) What's Mixt Greens Restaurant's signature dish and dessert? What's your green motto?

We source as many organic ingredients as possible because of the environmental and health benefits associated with organic production. Organic production does not contribute to topsoil erosion and toxic runoff, and promotes biodiversity. We also believe it just tastes better!

Two of our signature salads are:

Bachelor: red leaf lettuce, grilled prime flat iron, herb roasted potatoes, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese, balsamic vinaigrette, topped with caramelised onions

Cowboy: romaine hearts, herb marinated grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, black beans, sharp cheddar, red onion, point reyes blue cheese dressing with a chipotle honey drizzle.

My green motto is “A sustainable lifestyle is for everyone”.

© EcoAsia 2009