Restaurant Sustainability

While working in the restaurant industry, I've witnessed first hand the wasteful practices which occur everyday. Using styrofoam for carry-out containers, constantly running water, and continually throwing away products which can easily be recycled are some of the biggest issues I see at work.
In my efforts to promote sustainability, I decided to take my efforts to the larger scale and tackle some of the issues going on in the restaurant I work at. I began by asking the general manager for an interview. I was not surprised when I didn't hear back from him. I must have made some sort of ripple because a week after the interview I had the service manager pull me aside for a talk. This is usually a bad omen as it usually deals with constantly being late or guest complaints. I was surprised to hear that he had heard of the sustainability project and wanted in. I first asked to interview him about restaurant sustainability and his beliefs on what is important to him in the big picture.
Here is the interview:

What does sustainability mean to you?
As a society, I think we spend very little time thinking about the rate at which we are going through our resources. Also, what effect the waste that we generate will have on the increasingly human dominated habitats. This has to catch up with us eventually. Sustainability means doing what needs to be done to prevent a possible critical mess in the future.

What aspects of sustainability are important to you?

Modifying the resource consumption of water, keeping the by-products of our lifestyles from poisoning the very things that we depend on to live, and better management of energy consumption.

Are you acting on those beliefs?

I would say that i am passionate about sustainability, my awareness of ways to decrease my 'footprint' has grown and I feel like I am a work in progress. Having said that, I am still moving with the wasteful inertia of society more than making strides against it.

You work in the restaurant industry, what are some of the sustainability issues you see which need to be addressed? Do you see any fundamental changes happening? Increased Awareness?

A sustainability plan is in the embyotic stages at my restaurant. Our consumption of water is a very large concern, we need to put a lot more work in our electricity consumption, and we allow too much plastic and paper to end up in a landfill. But I am not giving up.

Is there anything holding you back from doing more both at home and at the workplace?

We are addicted to petroleum because of our reluctance to drastically modify our lifestyle or change our thinking. This is human nature and I am guilty also.

Who do you think should play a bigger role in helping us become more sustainable?

There is not a whole lot of leadership out there, partly because of general apathy and partly because our sources of information don't do a whole lot of touting the virtues of sustainability. In many cases quite the opposite. What we need is an enlightenment of sorts where the message gets from person to person. "Yes, what I do today REALLY does affect livability tomorrow. That is definately not at the forefront of our psychy. It needs to be.

I was extremely surprised with the passion he displayed for these issues. We also devised a sustainability taskforce at work with those who share similar opinions. I'll keep you all updated after the first meeting!