Economics of going green // 04.21.2009 at 07:33 AM

Categories: Business Innovations in Sustainability, Quality of Work Life, Social Responsibility

When Greg Christian talks about zero impact catering, people pay attention.

With 17 years of experience in socially responsible and sustainable catering, Greg Christian is one of the leaders in the restaurant industry’s zero impact movement.

From designing, implementing and running zero waste kitchens, to catering high-end weddings and high-profile conventions and meetings, Greg Christian has fed them all.

And he’s done it using locally grown, organic food that is in season and priced comparable to conventionally farmed food that is shipped in from California or other parts of the world.

“Cost is the concern that is most often raised when caterers and planners consider moving toward a zero impact kitchen or event. I’m often asked, ‘How do I hold expenses down when I plan on going green? Why is it so expensive to go green,’” Christian says.

“But I tell them it’s more expensive not to go green,” he said. “Today we get the best food we can at the best price to be competitive. The challenge is that we’re flying food around the world. More than half the food served in the United States is grown outside the country. Most of our food travels an average of 1,500 ‘food miles’ before it gets to your table.”

“Food miles” are the distance a food item travels from the farm to your home. Food miles for items bought in a grocery store are about 27 times higher than the food miles for goods bought from local sources, Christian said.

“About 40 percent of our fruit is produced overseas; the broccoli we buy at the supermarket travels an average of 1,800 miles to get there, even though broccoli is likely grown within 20 miles of the average American’s house; and about 9 percent of our red meat comes from locations as far away as Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

“This type of animal husbandry is killing Mother Earth. It takes 2,400 gallons of water to grow one pound of beef. The agrichemicals in the synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers that are used to grow grain to feed the cows are having devastating effects on the Gulf of Mexico,” Christian said.

Organic farming limits the types of chemicals that can be used, minimizing its impact on the environment.

“The key here is to look at the overall economics of the situation. In the short-term, yes, it may seem to make more sense to continue to serve beef as they’ve been doing. But in the long-term, the real savings is achieved by using less beef and more locally produced, sustainably grown produce,” he said.

“This type of buying policy also has an effect on our seafood. The excess nutrients from the synthetic fertilizers, manure and pesticides drain into the Gulf from the Mississippi and Atchafalya River Basins. They cause microscopic phytoplankton to thrive and reproduce in large numbers. When the phytoplankton die, they sink to the ocean’s bottom, where they’re decomposed by bacteria that consume oxygen, leaving little oxygen for other marine life.

“Every year, beginning around April, an area in the Gulf becomes so oxygen-depleted that it becomes a ‘dead zone’ that cannot support any marine life. This dead zone, which peaks in size around late July, is getting larger every year. Not long ago this area was about the size of the state of New Jersey.

“Fish and other sea food can’t live in these dead zones, which are being created with our current farming techniques. Not only are we choking off the Gulf, but we are killing the seafood that

Another argument I hear against going green is the economy. Caterers, hotels, restaurants, a lot of them are struggling. With an economic environment like this, one can look at these as troubling times, or as a time of opportunity.

We’re seeing a new economy being built. We’ve seen that the old rules of going after short-term profits at the expense of long-term, sustainable growth, don’t work.

The economic cards have been thrown up in the air and we don’t know where they’re going to land.

We’ve got a new dealer, and new players at the table. Let’s take back the deck and create long-term, sustainable change while we can.