GRA: Green Certified Restaurants

Sustainability seems to be entering the restaurant business as the GRA provides guidelines and certification for restaurants aiming at "green" practices. Their website is extensive, providing names of restaurants that are currently certified, in addition to a list of products and suppliers that are endorsed as green.

This kind of certification mirrors LEED guidelines for sustainability in architecture, and these standards may become as popular. The possibility of a green restaurant is a great marketing idea, in addition to obvious environmental and social benefits. What further guidelines could be provided? How could these standards be applied to a cafeteria, such as the PIT, not to mention Benson, Subway, and the Coffee shop? What other systems in the restaurant business could be closed? What would a fully sustainable place for cooking, eating, and socializing look like?

Here is a list of some admittedly outrageous suggestions for...

THE SUSTAINABLE CAFETERIA

1. Have a composting facility ON CAMPUS, producing fertilizer that would be used in:
2. A spice garden in front of the PIT, and a vegetable garden somewhere else, each of which produces food to be used in the PIT
3. Using floors that turn foot traffic into energy in the PIT. Possibly they could run the lights. Maybe even put these "energy walkways" throughout the Mag quad area.
4. Have turnstiles at entrances and capture that energy for some use.
5. Use only local produce
6. Instead of using even biodegradable materials, make students rent Tupperware to-go materials for the semester. A similar program is being pushed at Eckerd College.
   
7. Have the dishwasher facility recycle dish water and maybe channel that power through a water turbine to power something else.
8. Capture the heat coming from cooking and use it to heat the rest of Reynolda hall
   
9. Vending machine refrigerators: Having the refrigerated materials organized so that they can be retrieved through a vending machine-style system, where the door is not opened and therefore cool air not wasted. This would, perhaps, save a great deal of energy.
   

These are initial ideas: what can be done further?