This spring we sat down to produce a ‘how to start a green team guide’ for restaurants. We did this because an informal study we conducted showed us that fewer than 10% of Restaurants in Canada had active green teams in their operations.
A formal study conducted by Danagelico (2015) showed that the creation of employee green teams positively affects both the environmental performance and environmental reputation or businesses. With this knowledge in hand we set off to help restaurants across the country start a green team and reap the benefits.
When we started to think of what this guide book might look like we simply ‘googled’ the term to look at examples in search of inspiration. One of the first guides we came across was produced by the Sustainability at Work Team. We were blown away by the guide this work group of Portland’s municipal government had produced. During our first few meetings to design our own guide we kept coming back to this document realizing quickly that we simply wanted to replicate everything they had done.
With a lot of work ahead of us, and the understanding that someone had already done this work so effectively, we took a chance and contacted the Sustainability at Work Team. We asked them if we could distribute their guide book. Their answer, ‘of course you can!’ They even suggested we share some ‘best practices’ on how to eliminate food waste that are found on their website. So here you are, a great guide on how to start a green team and some food waste tips as a bonus…. https://www.portlandoregon.gov/sustainabilityatwork/article/679341GreenTeam
Find the link for the ‘How to start a green team guide’ below.
University of Guelph Sustainable Restaurant Project 