The Green Restaurant Association founded the Green Restaurant movement 30 years ago in San Diego to shift the restaurant industry towards environmental sustainability. We were one of a few organizations back then that founded the green business movement, which is now thriving. In the first 2 decades, the GRA expanded to be in 47 States and Canada. Much of our work over the first 20 years was to educate restaurants and consumers as to the importance of sustainability and how it translates practically into the restaurant industry. Over the past decade, sustainability has become more mainstream. Green restaurant laws, such as composting, recycling, and foam bans have swept the world. Restaurants now compete to see who can reach a higher level of certification. The increased green demand over the past 3 decades has created a plentiful supply of energy-efficient equipment, sustainable food, green chemicals, and increasingly more sustainable packaging.
We are proud of the thousands of restaurants, which have made demonstrable environmental changes, which have begun to shift this industry towards sustainability. We are proud of the millions of consumers who vote with their dollars by patronizing Certified Green Restaurants®. We are proud of the manufacturers, distributors, and service providers, which are producing and selling green products and services. We are proud of the great Green Restaurant Association team of bright and dedicated people now and over the past 30 years, who have facilitated the restaurant industry in becoming more environmentally sustainable.
We have come a long way. But, we have by no means achieved our goal of "Shifting the restaurant industry towards environmental sustainability." We are closer than ever, but we are still a long way from having a sustainable food supply, green energy, reusables, Zero Waste, minimal water usage, and green chemicals. "Green" needs to become the norm... not the exception. We need all manufacturers, distributors, restaurants, and consumers to be "all hands on deck" to address our planet's serious environmental problems. As the Green Restaurant Association enters its 4th decade of work, our focus is to make "Green" the norm throughout the restaurant industry, to end the decade with "unsustainable restaurants" as being the exception. Come join us for this exciting and important next venture.