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New Hampshire Sustainable Lodging & Restaurant Program |
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NHSLRP and Green Dining in the News |
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CONCORD MONITOR Tuesday, February 5, 2008 —The Red Blazer's green revolution started with too many empties. Owner Sarandis Karathanasis was looking for a better - and safer - way to get rid of beer and wine bottles when he saw a glass crusher at a restaurant show in Chicago three years ago. Karathanasis and his business partner, Pedro Godoi, bought the machine for $4,000 to tackle the 700 to 1,000 pounds of glass their place generates a week. The benefits were immediate, said Karathanasis. No more employees cutting themselves on broken glass en route to the Dumpster. And by crushing the bottles, the Blazer was able to start taking its glass to the city's recycling center and, thereby, stop paying a trash collector to haul it away. In no time, the restaurant began saving $500 a month on trash fees. With that, a green obsession was born at the 500-seat Red Blazer on Manchester Street, one of Concord's oldest and biggest restaurants. Karathanasis and Godoi now give their food scraps to Godoi's pigs. They've also begun recycling the restaurant's plastic and tin. (They were already recycling cardboard.) They are halfway through replacing the eatery's light bulbs with energy efficient alternatives. They're buying a second glass crusher for their bar. But their biggest project is under way now. This month, Karathanasis and Godoi are supplementing their traditional natural gas water heaters with an oil boiler that will use the restaurant's used vegetable oil to heat its hot water. Kitchen staff will simply drain the used vegetable oil into a tank in the basement, and from there it will be fed through pipes to the new boiler and, in turn, heat water as it's needed. They were turned on to the technology by Tony Giunta, Franklin's former mayor and state environmental employee who is now a senior environmental consultant for Entrix in Methuen, Mass. Giunta predicts the 40 to 50 pounds of waste vegetable oil the Blazer generates each week will be enough to heat just about all its hot water, even the water piped underground and outside to melt ice on the restaurant's walkways. And by heating with vegetable oil, Giunta expects the restaurant will save $300 a month in natural gas costs. Financially, it will be years before the restaurant recoups the nearly $25,000 it has spent on the boiler and the associated consulting and labor costs, Karathanasis said. But that's not the only return he and Godoi are thinking about. "We see it more from a responsibility point of view," Karathanasis said. "What I'm hoping for is that this will be a lead for other people to follow. I hope it's something people want to mimic." That's something Michelle Veasey hears a lot. Veasey is manager of the sustainability program introduced about four years ago by the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association. The goal has been to encourage and teach accommodation and restaurant owners how to be more energy efficient and thoughtful about the environmental impacts of their businesses. "We have quarterly seminars and people really enjoy the networking and finding out what worked and what didn't," she said. "And it's not because they want to create the corner on the market for themselves. They want to share their ideas." The lodging side of the program has really taken off, Veasey said. Owners of the biggest hotels and smallest bed and breakfast operations are participating. They've begun replacing light bulbs, incorporating local food into their menus and trying to reduce both their everyday waste and their hazardous waste. Part of the effort requires business owners to educate their staff and customers about their efforts, too. The program expanded to restaurants a little over a year ago, and it's been slow going, Veasey said. She thinks that's because restaurant life is so busy every day - nights and weekends included - that owners don't have time to step back and think bigger about their operations. She's hoping that changes as more restaurants have successes they can brag about. Giunta said the Blazer's owners were quite open to his ideas about the vegetable oil boiler. (He was so impressed by their overall "green" effort that he nominated the restaurant for a Lean and Green award given out by the Business NH Magazine.) But like Veasey, Giunta said many business owners in this area are slowly warming to new technology. Giunta said he knew of no one else in the area using vegetable oil - exclusively and not mixed with other fuels - as an energy source for heating water. The project had an unexpected benefit, too. When the Blazer informed its vegetable oil dealer that it wanted to keep its waste oil rather than return it, the dealer said no deal. So, Karathanasis and Godoi not only found a new dealer, but one who carried oil with no trans-fats; that's better for customers and the boiler. Michael Oshman, executive director of the Green Restaurant Association in Boston, said the green movement is picking up faster elsewhere in New England. His association provides consulting to restaurants who want to be more environmentally responsible. Owners come to Oshman's office with different motives: They want to save money, save the earth or generate better press for their operation. Oshman's advice can include swapping linen napkins for paper ones, choosing reclaimed rather than virgin wood for new projects, finding a way to reuse or compost food scraps, or using environmentally friendly paint for walls. He doesn't care so much what brings people to his association as long as they come. Karathanasis and Godoi are already thinking about their next project. They are building a new, energy-efficient beer cooling room that will cut their cooling costs while allowing them to expand their beer selection from 12 varieties to 35. And they are considering starting a "waste oil" route. Their idea is to collect used vegetable oil from other restaurants willing to part with it. They bought a bigger-than-needed vegetable oil boiler just for that reason. And if no one will part with their oil? In that case, Karathanasis would be happy with a phone call from any competitor wanting to steal his idea. (Karathanasis can be reached at 224-4101 or at sarandis@redblazer.cc. For more information about The New Hampshire Sustainable Lodging and Restaurant Program, visit nhslrp.org. The Green Restaurant Association's website is dinegreen.com.) |
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Article available at http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802050307 |