Next time you walk into a restaurant in Memphis, look for a sticker with a little green fork on it. If you see one, you’ll know Margot McNeeley, founder of Project Green Fork, has been there — facilitating that restaurant’s transition to a greener way of doing business.
That little green fork has made some big changes around Memphis. By asking restaurants to follow seven basic guidelines — use sustainable products; set up recycling programs; engage in kitchen composting; replace toxic cleaners; complete an energy audit; reduce energy and water consumption; and prevent pollution — Project Green Fork (PGF) has kept 1,108,528 gallons of plastic, glass, and aluminum and 500 metric tons of cardboard and paper from the landfill, and has diverted 149,137 gallons of food scraps from landfills to community gardens in the Mid-South.
The idea all started when McNeeley's love of eating out turned out to serve up a heaping dose of guilt over the trash she was accumulating simply from eating. “My husband and I eat out a lot,” McNeeley says. “There are so many restaurants in Memphis and such a variety that we were finding ourselves going out more and more frequently. I’ve worked in restaurants before, so I knew the process with trash and how much waste there is per meal served. But, I started to pay more attention to where the trash and beer and wine bottles were going and what we’re doing with take-out food. I started to not enjoy going out to eat. I was feeling guilty because I knew I was generating a pound and a half to two pounds of trash per meal served.”
Ready to take action, her next step required more ownership of the idea than she first realized. “When I had the idea of helping locally owned restaurants become more sustainable, the first thing I did was try to find another organization that was doing similar work so I could partner with them,” says McNeeley. “At that time [in 2008], there wasn't another local organization in the tri-state area doing this type of work, so I decided to do it myself. I put a very basic business plan together, came up with a name and logo, recruited a board, and approached Chef Ben Smith to see if Tsunami would be our pilot restaurant. Once these major pieces were in place I went to the law firm Burch, Porter & Johnson and applied for a 501(c)3.”
Since there wasn't a method or model to follow, McNeeley and Smith worked together to make sure restaurant certifications for PGF were attainable, affordable, and enticing to the industry.
“I like the idea of not spending a lot of green to be green; in fact if the steps are done the way they are outlined, business owners can actually save money in some cases,” says McNeeley. “While working with Tsunami word got out about what I was trying to do, and, being the supportive community that Memphis is, people started calling to see how they could help and how they could get their establishment signed on.”
One such restaurant was Huey's Midtown location. “PGF has definitely changed the way we do business,” says Ashley Boggs Robilio, vice president of Huey's. “We've gotten a lot of good feedback from it. We've been certified for aboutthree years now, and when it first happened people were very excited. PGF has changed us in a very positive way.”
Before Project Green Fork, individual restaurants had to figure out these practices on their own, if so moved. McNeeley centralized the concept and made it adaptable by any restaurant operation and scalable to any other community.
“The main reason restaurants should join is because they want to do the right thing,” says McNeeley. “They want to decrease their carbon footprint; they want to decrease the amount of trash that’s going into a landfill; they want to help some of the community gardens by donating their food scraps or kitchen scraps, which creates a really good soil base.
“In addition to wanting to do the right thing, I think PGF builds customer loyalty,” McNeeley continues. “People right now are looking to support green businesses. A big part of what we do is promoting our restaurants. We do as much as we can to use the money they put into Project Green Fork to get them the tools they need to be successful. I can’t tell you how many times people stop me and say, ‘We decide where we’re going out to eat based on the Project Green Fork list.’”
PGF helps restaurants develop greener methods for a sustainable Mid-South while focusing on strengthening local restaurants. “Our city has a great program for residential curbside recycling but doesn’t have the resources for recycling for businesses,” says McNeeley. “The recycling component is the biggest part of what helps make restaurants sustainable. I knew that without the recycling piece resolved, the program wouldn't go far. Luckily, Madeleine Edwards, of Get Green Recycleworks, stepped up and said she wanted to start a recycling business based on the needs of PGF.”
By uniting the concepts of greener restaurants and eating local, PGF is changing Memphis one forkful at a time. “Each restaurant is unique; there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. That's what I like best about what I do: solving problems and helping the restaurants who are part of our program receive the recognition and support they deserve.
“It helps too that PGF has been around for more than 5 years and wasn’t a flash in the pan idea that never went anywhere,” McNeeley continues. “With 56 Project Green Fork-certified restaurants and more working on getting certified, the number of participating restaurants will keep growing, and we intend to be around to help.”
Innovator: Margot McNeeley
Innovation: Project Green Fork, a new way to help Memphis restaurants operate more sustainably. Has certified a total of 56 local restaurants for environmentally friendly practices regarding their recycling, waste management, pollution prevention, and reduction of carbon footprint .
Phone: (901) 292-1700
Website: projectgreenfork.org
