Our Commitment to Sustainability.

In 2010, clients were beginning to ask us about our "green mission" and asking us to fill out green surveys. At the time, we had never taken a real hard look to evaluate what we were doing. We noticed caterers and restaurants were claiming to be "green," but we wondered, what exactly did that mean? How does a food service company actually prove they are "green"? There is so much waste in the food service industry––cardboard boxes, cans, food scraps, water, disposables and energy. Every day we receive caseloads of food and product delivered to our kitchen, and by the end of the day we have broken down boxes, empty cans, and food scraps left. We knew we needed to find a better way to reduce our waste and the pollution we were creating. We did some research and decided to have a third party, The Green Restaurant Association, analyze our environmental accomplishments.

The Green Restaurant Association looks at 8 categories to measure each food service company’s (restaurants, catering companies, college food service companies, stadiums, etc) environmental accomplishments and sustainability:

  1. Water Efficiency

  2. Waste Reduction and Recycling

  3. Sustainable Durable Goods & Building Materials

  4. Sustainable Food

  5. Energy

  6. Reusables & Environmentally Preferable Disposables

  7. Chemical and Pollution Reduction

  8. Transparency & Education

Commitment to Hyper-Local Farming:

  • We have our own organic urban farm where we grow dozens of varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs and edible flowers. Each year we harvest thousands of pounds (over 6000 pounds in 2022) of crops from our own farm, with our highest crop yield being tomatoes (over 1,000 pounds!! in 2022).

  • We grow microgreens and herbs indoors year round.

  • We're committed to saving the bees and eating a lot of raw, local honey––we have three of our own beehives!

Conservation Efforts:

  • Our building uses sustainable geothermal energy for our water heater, heating and air conditioning.

  • We compost all food scraps and compostable paper goods in our kitchen and Canteen.

  • Our disposable goods are compostable: cups, deli containers, plates, cutlery, straws and napkins.

  • We conserve water with faucets that have a lower water flow.

  • Our toilets have dual handles.

  • Our cleaning chemicals meet the highest green standards.

  • We have a recycling system in place.

  • We support farm-raised meat and ocean-friendly seafood.

  • We have reduced the amount of paper we use by installing hand dryers in the restrooms.

Partnerships:

  • In addition to our own farm, we support many local farms: Avrom Farm, Mighty Vine, and Mick Klüg Farm.

  • Since 2011 we have donated all our used vegetable oil to a biodiesel service, which turns it into fuel for shuttle buses and glycerin for soap for Loyola University.

  • We are members of or supporters of the organizations listed below.