The Environmentally Responsible Pizza

Fork in the Alley Meets a Green Standard
Written by Douglas Jackson

The first published photographs of Earth taken from space created a groundswell in the modern environmental movement. Seen it its entirety, the globe grew smaller, and its resources no longer seemed boundless. The planet now appeared as round and finite as a pizza.

Well, that’s not how it was described then, but it’s a relevant comparison for one local eatery making strides to shrink its environmental footprint. In January, Fork in the Alley Brick Oven Pub, owned by Dave Trinkle and managed by Dan Brown, became the first Certified Green Restaurant in Roanoke.
Awarded the designation by the Green Restaurant Association (GRA), the South Roanoke favorite is the second Certified Green Restaurant in Virginia, following Mabry Mill Restaurant on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Meadows of Dan.

According to the GRA, the average restaurant generates 100,000 pounds of garbage and uses more than 300,000 gallons of water each year. And the restaurant industry is the number one consumer of electricity in the retail sector, accounting for 33% of all U.S. retail electricity use. To help the industry address these and other sustainability challenges, the nonprofit GRA opened its doors in 1990, providing environmental consulting, education, and certification. Their goal is to make it easier for individual operators, restaurant groups, and chains to improve their environmental practices in a profitable manner. Across the country, more than 150 restaurants have signed on with GRA to take meaningful steps in reducing their environmental footprints. Restaurants that maintain the green restaurant certification are reporting positive outcomes, such as reduced energy bills, increased customer loyalty, and improved staff morale. Green restaurants throughout the country range from casual to upscale and include the ten-country European chain of Le Pain Quotidian eateries that operates more than a dozen locations in New York and Los Angeles.

Fork in the Alley—offering burgers, sandwiches, salads, and hot dogs as well as pizzas—began its certification process last August, and has since achieved nine environmental footprint-reducing steps. For instance, they have partnered with the City of Roanoke in establishing a comprehensive recycling system. They’ve gone Styrofoam-free. And they’ve installed high-efficiency hand dryers in the restrooms along with motion-sensor lighting.

Fork in the Alley is also working with other local restaurants and the City of Roanoke’s Waste Management Department to add colored glass recycling back to the list of products that the City is willing to recycle. Considering all of the beer and wine bottles that go into the landfill, this effort alone could be a big step for the community.

In another of their environmental awareness-building strategies, Fork in the Alley is offering a 10% discount on entrées to customers who bike in during the month of May. The effort should help bring attention to Clean Commute Day, National Bike to Work Day, and National Bike Month on May 16, 2008, and encourage the use of the Roanoke’s developing greenway system, which passes through River’s Edge Park, just blocks from the restaurant.

Over the next five years, Fork in the Alley will annually undertake four new environmentally friendly steps, adding even more reasons to keep this dining spot on your list. You can sit on the patio and look up at the night sky, pondering our responsibility as stewards of the planet, or you can simply enjoy some live music and one of the restaurant’s original green attributes, the spinach on the SoRo pizza.

More information:

www.dinegreen.com

www.forkinthealley.com

Did you know?
Certified Green Restaurants commit to continually reducing their environmental footprint by taking action in the following Green Restaurant Association Guideline Areas:
1. Energy Efficiency & Conservation
2. Water Efficiency & Conservation
3. Recycling & Composting
4. Sustainable Food
5. Pollution Prevention
6. Recycled, Tree-Free, Biodegradable & Organic Products
7. Chlorine-Free Paper Products
8. Non-Toxic Cleaning & Chemical Products
9. Green Power
10. Green Building & Construction
11. Education

Posted: March 1st, 2008 under Taste of the City.
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