Friday, February 4, 2011

Three Local Restaurants Are Leading the Way in Going Green

By Megan Birney and Crissy Haley, Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County |
The Courtyard Café and Coral Tree Café at UCSB, and Backyard Bowls have implemented innovative and sustainable workplace strategies
The Backyard Green Card rewards program at Backyard Bowls encourages customers to reduce and reuse.
The Backyard Green Card rewards program at Backyard Bowls encourages customers to reduce and reuse. (Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County photo)

From recycling and composting to alternative transportation and organic ingredients, local restaurants certified through the Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County are improving their business practices while reducing their ecological footprint.

The Green Business Program has developed a checklist specifically to help local restaurants achieve these goals and reduce their impact on the environment. The three most recently certified restaurants — Courtyard Café and the Coral Tree Café at UCSB, and Backyard Bowls — have employed some particularly innovative strategies to green their businesses.

At the Courtyard Café and the Coral Tree Café, manager Robbie Yankow has dedicated her time and staff to every aspect of running both of the restaurants in a more sustainable manner. The cafés earned a Green Business certification with the help of two UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management graduate students, Stacy Katz and Loretta Tam, who volunteered to work with café managers to guide them through the certification process.

To reduce waste, both of the cafés participate in on-campus recycling and hazardous waste programs. They also compost pre-consumer food waste and coffee grounds. Excess nonperishable foods are collected and donated to local charities. To reduce shipping and delivery impacts, and to support businesses in the community, the cafes also purchase locally produced baked goods and salad greens.

As part of the Green Business certification process, the cafés instituted a new program encouraging each café to sell reusable to-go containers. Customers purchase the containers, and then every time they patronize the cafes, they can bring in the used container to exchange it for a clean container and receive a 10-cent discount. This effort will both reduce the amount of containers the cafes purchase that are ultimately discarded, and educate and involve customers in the program.

Backyard Bowls founders Peter Heth and Dan Goddard have created a business culture centered on local, organic and sustainable. Backyard Bowls prepares its smoothies, acai bowls and breakfast bowls using as many organic and local products as possible, including honey, fresh fruits, organic grains and granolas, and fresh organic Straus yogurt.

The Courtyard Café and the Coral Tree Café at UCSB sell reusable to-go containers that customers can return to receive a 10-cent discount.
The Courtyard Café and the Coral Tree Café at UCSB sell reusable to-go containers that customers can return to receive a 10-cent discount. (Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County photo)

The company strives to create as little waste as possible by purchasing only what is needed and participating in the City of Santa Barbara’s food scraps program. They work to ensure that all recyclable products make it to the proper receptacles, and purchase recycled content paper products for office use. Other purchasing efforts include toilet paper made from waste sugar cane products, and compostable bowls and cups.

Additionally, Backyard Bowls recently launched its “Backyard Green Card” rewards program. Customers earn stamps on their cards by: 1) ordering food “for here”; 2) bringing their own (reusable) bowl (byob); or 3) returning used to-go bowls for composting. The goals of the innovative program are to reward loyal customers and to help people be more conscious of the simple day-to-day choices that can have a large impact on the environment.

To become Green Business certified, Backyard Bowls upgraded lighting fixtures to reduce energy use and replaced the toilet in the employee restroom to be ultra-low flow. It also implemented water-conserving practices in its kitchen, including use of a specialized piece of equipment to clean the blenders.

To promote the use of alternative transportation, Backyard Bowls developed a program to offer incentives to employees for getting to and from work without their cars. The ride-sharing program offers subsidized bus passes and the chance to win dinner with Heth and Goddard for ride-sharing most often.

The Green Business Program applauds these local restaurants for their leadership and hope that restaurants across the county will follow their lead in implementing resource- and cost-saving practices.

Check back with Noozhawk next week to read how local nonprofit organizations are going green.

— Megan Birney serves on the Steering Committee of the Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County on behalf of the Community Environmental Council. Crissy Haley is an intern with the Green Business Program and a master’s degree candidate at the UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science & Management.


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

In Full Bloom

From Santa Barbara Magazine | sbmag.com
Posted online: January 2011

More than 30 years ago, inspired by a European flower stand, Trace Robinson set up her own in a Montecito courtyard. With an eye for design and a heart that stays true to all things organic and sustainable, the now-renowned landscape architect still calls Santa Barbara home and brings beauty to the local garden scene.

Robinson reworks a site from beginning to end—from analyzing soil to seeing a project transform into a sustainable garden paradise. Responsible for some of our town’s most treasured landscapes, she’s known for the grounds of Montecito’s Birnamwood—an English-inspired rose garden that blooms year-round, thanks to Robinson’s care and study. Her Santa Ynez Valley ventures include the Alisal Guest Ranch and Golf Resort, where she has presided over the landscape and flowerbeds for the past 10 years, bringing the property to an eco-friendly state.

With many ideas in bloom, she uses her own space as a testing ground for introducing edible plants and other floral projects, and she distills essential oils from flowers and herbs for her daughter Minka Robinson Stevens’s skincare line. “My garden is my place to get inspired, work hard, dream, and ultimately get restored,” she says of her own landscape, which she brought back to life after it was taken by the Tea Fire in 2008. Robinson takes great care to explain to her clients the inner workings of their new grounds, urging a transition from traditional chemical methods to a “viable organic and sustainable practice.” She adds: “Utmost and foremost, I want people to love and live in their garden.” –Chanel Betuk