Here’s how to combat waste in your commercial kitchen to help save money and the environment.
LEAF's Guide to Canada's Greenest Restaurants 2019
VICTORIA, BC, APRIL 16, 2019 - LEAF’s annual Guide to Canada’s Greenest Restaurants showcases the growing importance of environmentally sustainable foodservice. With nearly 100 LEAF Certified facilities across Canada, from independent restaurants, to small cafes, and large campuses, the green movement is making an impact.
LEAF Certified restaurants are distinguished because of their dedication to sustainability, including water and energy conservation, waste reduction and composting, and local or sustainable food offerings.
“Choosing to dine with a restaurant that cares about their environmental impact is helping create change in the foodservice industry and moving Canada towards a greener future,” says Janine Windsor, LEAF President and Founder.
The updated list of LEAF certified restaurants includes Craft Beer Market, who won the 2019 LEAF Award for Most Improved and are LEAF certified in all of their seven locations across Canada. The 2019 LEAF Award for Greenest Restaurant went to to River Café in Calgary, who continue to raise the bar in their commitment to sustainability.
LEAF’s top six most sustainable restaurants in Canada are:
Cafe Belong, Toronto, ON
Locals Restaurant - Food from the Heart of the Island, Comox, BC;
River Cafe, Calgary, AB;
The Coup, Calgary, AB;
Degrees, Winnipeg, MB;
Chic Alors!, Quebec, QC.
As LEAF approaches ten years as a Canadian not-for-profit, green dining options are steadily growing due to both consumer demand and increased industry awareness. This past year LEAF launched a successful plastic-free dining challenge, which encouraged all restaurants to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics.
“These are no small changes,” says Windsor. “It’s estimated that plastics take approximately 400 years to degrade, so eliminating common single-use items is an important step in reducing plastic waste.”
Consumers can support a more sustainable foodservice industry by visiting a LEAF Certified restaurant and encouraging local restaurants to become LEAF Certified.
Follow LEAF on Twitter @LEAF_Canada, on Instagram @LEAF_Canada, and on Facebook L.E.A.F
Leaders in Environmentally Accountable Foodservice (LEAF) is Canada’s only nationwide, non-profit foodservice certification program. Established in 2009, LEAF helps restaurants reduce their environmental impact and makes it easy for patrons to identify green restaurants.
Check out the guide below!
LEAF Announces Uber Eats as Sponsorship Partner
LEAF support UN's Clean Seas campaign
LEAF is proud to announce that we have agreed to support the UN’s Clean Seas campaign by continuing our commitment to tackling the plastic pollution problem. In June, we launched our Plastic-Free Dining Challenge, asking restaurants to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics, and earlier this year we launched our criteria version 4.0, which places a heavier emphasis on eliminating single-use plastics and requires all LEAF certified facilities eliminate plastic straws, bags, stir sticks and sandwich pokes, with requirements getting more stringent at each level.
Do your part to reduce plastic pollution - sign up for the Plastic-Free Dining Challenge!
And sign up for the Clean Seas campaign here: http://www.cleanseas.org/take-action
LEAF launches Plastic-Free Dining Challenge
Photo by Placebo365/iStock / Getty Images
June 1, LEAF will launch our Plastic-Free Dining Challenge - a campaign aimed at addressing the use of single-use plastics in the foodservice industry and actively working to reduce them.
Plastics are entering our oceans at an alarming rate. According to Ocean Wise, an astonishing 86 per cent of all plastic packaging is used only once then discarded. It can take an estimated 400 or more years for plastics to degrade in the environment, meaning a large percentage of every peice that has ever been created, still remains. Read more here.
With the incredible success of recent movements like #StrawsSuck and #LastStrawToronto, the time is now to build on this momentum and look at ways to further reduce plastic pollution. We are asking you to join us in tackling the plastic pollution problem!
Not a restaurant? Encourage your favourite restaurant to join us!