This story is part of The Healthyish Guide to Eating for the Climate…Without Stressing Out, a collection of our best tips for living sustainably and eating well while doing so.
When the after-dinner crowds finish their kombucha cocktails and filter out the doors of west~bourne, a LA-inspired all-day cafe in New York’s trendy Soho neighborhood, a manager snaps a picture of the compost, recycling, and trash accumulated throughout the day. Each bag is weighed and added to a spreadsheet that’s been carefully updated for over a year in pursuit of one goal: to become the first certified zero-waste restaurant in New York.
In the U.S., the restaurant industry is estimated to generate 22–33 billion pounds of food waste each year. But as anxieties about the environment and calls for a more ethical industry coalesce, climate consciousness is becoming the newest buzzword since “CBD.” We’re less than a month into 2020, and already this decade has been awash with talk of sustainability in food—but not much in the way of definition. Is sustainability making burgers with plant-based meat or using the whole, meat-based animal? Cutting down on single-use plastics or using “biodegradable” containers?
Now, a handful of New York City restaurants like west~bourne and Rhodora, a natural wine bar in Fort Greene, are upping the ante. They’re using a zero-waste philosophy to overhaul supplier networks and traditional restaurant dynamics in hopes of building a transparent, sustainable system.
In February, west~bourne owner Camilla Marcus plans to file their application with Green Business Certification Inc., an organization best known for the pioneering LEED green building certification. Businesses are required to submit a year of data proving that 90 percent of waste has consistently been diverted from a landfill or incinerator, and earn additional points for actions like providing staff with sustainability training and establishing zero-waste relationships with suppliers. A third-party assessor inspects the business, which pays a $1,200 to $1,500 registration fee, plus a certification fee priced per square foot. If all goes according to plan, west~bourne will be the first restaurant in New York to complete the program.
“Everyone is throwing around the word ‘sustainability’ and the word ‘zero-waste,’ but if we have this certification from a certain board, someone who dines with us can look that up and understand what that means,” says west~bourne’s chief of staff Jamie Fass, who spearheads the restaurant’s participation in the certification program.
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