News

September 3, 2009

Green-Minded Chicago Operators Seek Eco-Friendly Business Solutions

A sea turtle prompted Dan Rosenthal to change the way he does business. He was sitting on a beach in St. Maarten three years ago when the remains of a sea turtle washed onto the sun-bleached Caribbean sand. "It had died from eating a plastic bag that someone had thrown away," Rosenthal recalls. "I was using about 400,000 plastic bags a year in my restaurants at the time." He decided to bring that number down to zero.

Returning to his fast-casual and fine-dining operations in Chicago, Rosenthal started shopping for new takeout bags. However, he discovered that "it was cost-prohibitive to bring that change into Chicago."

To make it more affordable, Rosenthal joined forces with Ina Pinkney and other local restaurateurs interested in eco-friendly supplies. They bundled their purchasing might together to realize the economies of scale, forming the Green Chicago Restaurant Co-op in the fall of 2007.

A Chicago official recently cited the program as evidence of the metropolis's determination to become the greenest city in America. The Department of the Environment's David O'Connell characterized the co-op as a stroke of ingenuity, a simple can-do remedy for a significant problem.

Although the co-op has tried to keep its operations simple, it "requires commitment," notes Rosenthal, who is the unpaid head of the co-op and the self-avowed force behind its operation and expansion.

The more than 200 co-op members do not pay dues or fees. They're asked to fill out an online form that specifies how much they purchase products like disposables and cleaning supplies. Applicants also are queried for details about how much solid waste they generate and how often it's carted away. Similar specifics are sought on their disposal of fryer grease.

The information is used to secure volume discounts from suppliers for co-op members. But Green Chicago stresses that the participants are under no obligation to buy from the affiliated vendors. All the orders are placed directly by the member establishments; the co-op does not serve as a middleman nor collect commissions. "We're very democratic," says Rosenthal.

Suppliers are asked to pledge that they'll provide the items at the lowest price they offer in the market, he says. The roster includes a number of well-known industry brands as well as local purveyors.

"The suppliers will sometimes help us out by spreading the word," Rosenthal says. "A restaurant might tell its distributor, 'I want to switch to a sustainable cup.' The distributor will say, 'We have them for $60 a case. Or you can join Green Chicago and get it for $48 a carton.'"

Not all products are currently available through the co-op. "We started off with plastic bags, then moved into disposables. That led us to paper supplies, then office supplies, then soap and cleaning supplies," says Rosenthal.

The group recently tested a program for leveraging members' purchase of sustainable food products, "and we'll be rolling that out to the membership shortly," he adds.

Meanwhile, Green Chicago is developing a process that will enable members to have their food scraps and biodegradable products picked up for composting. It would be the first of its kind in Chicago, according to Rosenthal.

Recently the co-op added a recognition program so that members can alert the public to their green orientation via a decal in the window or a logo in their print ads.

Awareness of the purchasing program has been spread thus far by word-of-mouth and occasional press coverage, according to Rosenthal. Today, "we have everything from fast-food and fast-casual to fullservice restaurants, museum restaurants, college campuses, hotels, even the Shedd Aquarium," he says.

Included are Rosenthal's five fast-casual restaurants, the Italian-themed Sopraffina Market Caffes; a fine-dining restaurant, Trattoria #10; and Poag Mahone's, an old-style burger-and-beer place.

The co-op typically fields five or six inquiries a week from Chicago restaurateurs who want to operate in a more sustainable fashion, he says. Rosenthal expects that pace to pick up during the next few years, to the point where "it's going to be huge."

"The interest in sustainability, in greening, is reaching the tipping point—the demand from consumers is growing daily," he says. "The next two or three years are going to be great for us."

Rosenthal readily offers a slice of advice for anyone who's thinking of starting a similar operation. "I'm making it up as I go along," he jokes. "It requires commitment, but as for planning ... Well, the 'ready, fire, aim' dynamic probably comes into play.

"You have to make a commitment and just plunge in, because this is all happening so fast in terms of what's green, what's sustainable, what products are available," he continues. "What looked so-so yesterday could mean a bright-green morning tomorrow."