"green" news and stories

The Green Restaurant Association Encourages Eaters to 'Dine Green'

by Alexa Weibel, Posted Mar 1st 2010 @ 5:30PM

Veselka in NYC has a green charter rating. Photo: ZagatBuzz, Flickr

With the bountiful supply of new "green" products seemingly multiplying on grocery-store shelves, the Green Restaurant Association announced today at the International Restaurant and Foodservice Show of New York a partnership with iloveny.com, dinegreennyc.com and citysearch.com to help consumers properly identify certified green restaurants.

As "green" becomes increasingly the foodie word du jour, it seems every product is eager to slap a "green" logo on its packaging. But Green Restaurant Association's CEO and founder Michael Oshman warns about the "Wild West of green" -- many companies use only a small percentage of the advertised product or only enough to make such a claim, false advertising he dubs "green washing." He warns curious consumers to carefully inspect product labels -- or to rely on his association, a third-party organization, for trusted certification.

The Green Restaurant Association's certification system rates individual eateries in seven environmental categories: Energy, Water, Waste, Disposables, Chemical & Pollution Reduction, Sustainable Food and Sustainable Building Materials in a point-system presented in a label not unlike those providing nutritional information.

Filed under: Trends, Food Politics, New Products, News

Quiznos Launches 'Eat Toasty, Be Green' Campaign

COMMENTS 2

by Jennifer Lawinski, Posted Feb 23rd 2010 @ 12:30PM

Courtesy of Quiznos

In an effort to make its restaurants and take-away containers more environmentally friendly, Quiznos has kicked off its "Eat Toasty, Be Green" campaign with the introduction of new biodegradable packaging.

Quiznos is introducing 100 percent compostable wax-coated paper cups, pulp salad bowls made from renewable sugarcane and napkins made from 100 percent recycled material and fibers. Plastic lids will be 30 percent post-consumer recycled PET bottles and catering lunch boxes will be made from 100 percent recycled paperboard.

The company is also outfitting its employees with uniforms made from 100 percent recycled soda pop bottles. One hat keeps six soda bottles out of the landfill. An apron is made from about 25 bottles.

"We first looked at our cups and salad bowls and salad lids. We were using plastic salad bowls and we wound up finding a vendor that has a renewable sugarcane-pulp bowl that's recyclable, biodegradable and compostable," Ellen Kramer, executive vice president of communications for Quiznos, told Slashfood.

Filed under: Fast Food

The Year in Wine

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by Kristine Hansen, Posted Dec 22nd 2009 @ 2:00PM

red wine in glass Getty Images

Even though 2009 was a money-conscious year, most of us did not make a foolish decision to abandon wine. Because who doesn't need a heart-stopping bottle to pair with your favorite cheese or impress dinner-party guests?

Winemakers scrambled to keep their audience of sippers happy by offering value-oriented choices without compromising quality. Drinking wine at home -- instead of the local, hip wine bar -- became just as cool, and cheaper still. And lots of wineries and vineyards adopted green stripes by folding sustainability into their business models.

Here is a recap of the year's hottest wine stories.

Filed under: Fast Food, Drinks, News, Features

Could Microwaves Be Better for the Environment than Ovens?

COMMENTS 11

by Emily Matchar, Posted Mar 26th 2009 @ 4:00PM

My mom likes to tell stories about how, when she was pregnant, she would always put her food in the microwave, press the "start" button, and run away as fast as she could so as to not irradiate the fetus.

Of course microwaves do not actually irradiate anything (even my mom knew that, on a rational level), but a lot of people still consider them vaguely evil. At the very least they don't enjoy the best reputation for producing healthy or delicious food.

But they may be better for the environment, at least in certain circumstances. As an interesting Slate story found, using a microwave for cooking small portions is much more energy efficient than using an oven. Making a single baked potato in an oven took 9.5 times as much energy as it did in a microwave; making four portions of baked potato in a microwave took 2.5 times the energy. The efficiency ratios are skewed depending on whether you have a gas or electric oven -- gas ovens produce fewer carbon emissions per units of heat than electric ovens.

Good to know, though until they make microwaves that can brown the top of a half-eaten casserole, I'm going to have to stick to my oven for certain reheating jobs.

How often do you use your microwave versus your oven?

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Filed under: Food News

I'll Take a Tube of Wine, Please

COMMENTS 8

by Gretchen Roberts, Posted Jan 1st 2009 @ 2:00PM

A few weeks ago I listed my 2009 wine predictions, including one under "wishful thinking" about box wine, PET bottles, and lighter, alternative forms of packaging becoming mainstream. Now it seems we're one step closer: a California wine company is bottling (or would that be "bagging") a Cabernet Sauvignon in a cardboard tube.

According to the company, Four Wine reduces carbon footprint by 50 percent and reduces landfill waste by 85 percent compared with traditional glass packaging. The packaging is 100 percent recyclable.

As far as I can tell, this wine is boxed wine of a different shape, an attempt at marketing to people who want to be green but don't want the stigma of serving from a box. It has a bag and spigot, but the packaging is a bit more upscale than your generic box brand. And hey, if wine snobs latch on, who cares if the cardboard packaging is a rolled tube or a rectangular box?

I haven't tried the wine, but it's supposed to be a premium brand with lower prices since you're not paying as much for shipping. A 3-liter tube (the equivalent of four bottles) retails at $39. Tried it? What do you think?

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Filed under: Trends, Drink Recipes