Greener Results Helps Develop the National Restaurant Association’s Greener Restaurants Program

PRLog (Press Release) - May 25, 2010 -
Greener Results Consulting worked with the National Restaurant Association (NRA) to develop its new Greener Restaurants program, which was featured at the NRA Show in Chicago May 22-25. Greener Results helped the National Restaurant Association design the voluntary framework for the program, developed much of its technical content and resources, and helped manage the design and implementation of the website and database.  

Greener Restaurants is supported by the National Restaurant Association’s Conserve initiative which encourages restaurant operators to increase their environmental efforts while preserving—and many times boosting—their bottom line. The new Greener Restaurants program is a membership-based educational model that will also serve as a consumer-based platform for all restaurants nationwide that wish to document their green activities. The goal of the Greener Restaurants program is to help restaurant operators save money while incorporating sustainability practices throughout the restaurant. The program includes checklists of best practices and online tools and resources, including more than 70 clips of video footage featuring real-life examples of green practices.  

Greener Results Consulting was chosen to work on the project because of its experience in developing voluntary, pollution-prevention-based recognition programs. Greener Results helped develop Virginia Green, Virginia’s successful program to encourage green practices in all sectors of that state’s tourism industry. Greener Results also helped develop Maryland Green Travel which launched a similar voluntary program in 2009. Both of these programs provide recognition opportunities for their participants, but depend upon active consumer involvement to ensure that facilities observe the green practices to which they have committed.    

“Greener Results’ experience in developing green hospitality programs proved invaluable to us as we designed and developed the Greener Restaurants program,” said Conserve Program Manager Chris Moyer.  

The new Greener Restaurants program essentially utilizes the same highly-leveraged, consumer-involved models as the Virginia and Maryland programs. Participating restaurants will use the program’s educational tools and resources to learn about new green practices and technologies.  Once implemented, the activity appears on the restaurant’s web-based profile, which is then shared with the consumer. Consumers are encouraged to provide online feedback and comments on “how green” the given restaurant really is.  

Tom Griffin, Director of Greener Results explained, “The Greener Restaurants program will work to heighten environmental awareness within the industry and help to meet the increasing consumer demands for restaurants that are committed to sustainable practices. Greener Restaurants will also encourage increased participation in state and local recognition programs; and, it should also benefit certification programs, such as those run by Green Seal and the Green Restaurant Association.”  

Greener Results is currently working to develop additional resources for the Greener Restaurants program, and they are working with their state program clients to encourage joint partnerships that will be mutually beneficial. In addition, Greener Results is assisting individual restaurants in the development of green programs and is encouraging them to join the new Greener Restaurants program.  

Griffin continued, “It has been a pleasure to work on this project in partnership with the major contributors to the program which include The Turner Foundation, Kendall College, the Food Service Technology Center, and EPA’s EnergyStar program. In addition, we’d like to recognize the significant contributions of DevBridge, Inc. who partnered with Greener Results to handle all aspects of website and database development.”