You've been working with a convention center to implement green practices for your upcoming meeting. Do you know how "green" the center's kitchen is on a consistent basis? How about the restaurants hosting off-site events?

Those are not trivial concerns for Michael Oshman, who has been focused on sustainable practices in the restaurant industry long before green was in. Oshman founded the non-profit Green Restaurant Association (GRA, www.dinegreen .com) in Boston in 1990, when he was 19 years old. His association provides the seal of approval certifying that green practices are permanently in place at hundreds of food establishments in 33 states and some Canadian provinces.

How It Works
Instead of conducting on-site inspections, GRA consultants audit receipts to ensure that institutions are buying and using environmentally sustainable products. Facilities can take many different steps to earn credit toward the seal. A GRA consultant is assigned to each restaurant to:

• perform an environmental assessment
• identify potential opportunities for change
• work with distributors, waste haulers, vendors, and landlords to implement changes
• provide educational resources
• provide signage and other collateral to let customers and employees know about the restaurant's environmental accomplishments
• work with media to gain positive exposure.

Certified Green Restaurants must meet the following standards:

1. use a comprehensive recycling system for all products accepted by local recycling companies
2. be free of polystyrene foam ("Styrofoam") products
3. commit to completing four environmental steps per year of membership
4. complete at least four environmental steps after joining the GRA.

Environmental steps (see sidebar) fall anywhere within GRA's 11 environmental guidelines. They range from simple initiatives, such as using recycled and chlorine-free napkins, to more involved changes, such as advanced machinery retrofits, which can yield significant energy savings over the long term. GRA not only certifies restaurants, cafes, bakeries, and pubs, but the kitchens and dining areas of resorts and retreat centers, schools and universities, and museums.

Now Oshman is greening the catering divisions of convention centers for trade shows. From there, Oshman says his end goal is to green the trade shows themselves, by providing resources such as booths made of 100 percent recycled materials, and environmentally conscious vendors and manufacturers.

To that end, GRA has struck up a partner- ship with the three restaurant shows of Reed Exhibition Companies, including the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, and the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show. Oshman presented a session at Reed's 2008 International Restaurant Association & Foodservice Show of New York last month. Ron Mathews, vice president, Reed Exhibition Companies Restaurant and Foodservice Events Portfolio, said it made sense for Reed to work with GRA because "they are the industry experts. The Green Restaurant Association really has changed how restaurants are doing business." n u

Examples of Environmental Steps:

• installing water aerators
• recycling all paper, plastic, metal, and glass
• using energy efficient lighting
• installing motion-sensor fixtures
• providing high-speed super efficient hand dryers in bathrooms
• cleaning with non-toxic cleaners
• using recycled take-out packaging
• featuring sustainable food options on menus.

DID YOU KNOW?
In energy usage alone, restaurants are huge consumers. The restaurant industry is the No. 1 electricity consumer in retail sector, accounting for 33 percent of all U.S. retail electricity use.

Peggy Swisher is managing editor, Convene.

This month's Green Meetings page is sponsored by Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau, www.visitseattle.org.