Ask a dozen industry folks to define sustainable food and chances are you’ll get a dozen different answers. While the USDA has established identity standards for organic labeling, there are no clear guidelines for sustainable products. To complicate things, different food producers have developed different definitions; fisheries use one set of criteria while poultry farmers, fruit growers and cattle ranchers have others.

In an effort to get everyone on the same page, the nonprofit Food Alliance certifies farmers, ranchers and food handlers (packers, processors and distributors) for sustainable agricultural and business practices. Its certification guidelines include providing safe and fair working conditions; ensuring the humane treatment of animals; banning hormones, genetic modification and non-therapeutic antibiotics; and prohibition of artificial flavors, colors and preservatives, among others.

“Sustainability is a huge buzzword that is becoming muddled as everyone gloms onto it,” claims Karen Karp, a consultant for the Sustainable Food Laboratory, a coalition of food companies, distributors and organizations such as the Rainforest Alliance and World Wildlife Fund. The lab recently published “The Changing Vocabulary of Food Purchasing: A Guide for Foodservice Professionals,” in which sustainability terms like fair trade, food miles and ethical sourcing are clarified. Karp’s advice for restaurant operators is to consider sustainability a journey—not a destination. “Start the process and set benchmarks to monitor your progress. It’s about constantly adding more and continually improving.”

Bringing sustainability to the table

Here’s how four concepts are making sustainable sourcing a priority.

Big Bowl
Chicago
At this Pan-Asian fast-casual chain, five words guide purchasing decisions: Local, natural, self-sustaining, eco-friendly and organic, says president Dan McGowan. “Everything we buy—from chicken to salmon and napkins—fits under one or more of these headings.”

When parent company Lettuce Entertain You purchased Big Bowl back from Brinker three years ago, they looked at it as a great opportunity to refocus the concept in a sustainable direction. That goal is easier to fulfill in some categories than others, McGowan admits. “Often, it’s simple to find a product but hard to find a distributor. We worked on getting all-natural, humanely raised beef for over a year.”

He’s now partnering with Sysco for heirloom pork, Freebird brand chicken and local produce; the largely pasture-raised beef comes from small farms in the Midwest. “Sysco Minnesota does an excellent job working with local farmers to procure seasonal produce,” McGowan adds. “They send out an alert on what’s being harvested by local farmers and we can plan specials and desserts based on that.” In addition, Lettuce’s purchasing director Mark Dorian and the company’s Green Committee have coordinated with farms in the Chicago area to supply produce; store managers often pick up the products themselves to save transportation costs. In the winter, when they’re “handcuffed” by the weather, smaller suppliers and Sysco deliver fruits and vegetables from further afield.

Escalating food prices have impacted Big Bowl’s bottom line. “All-natural beef is $1.50 more per pound and we’re spending $200,000 more a year on chicken,” McGowan reports. “We can raise menu prices a little, but mostly we’ve had to absorb the increases. But we feel a responsibility to bring in sustainable products.”

Organic to Go
Seattle, Washington
Jason Brown opened the first O to Go in 2005 with the idea that “clean food should be convenient.” There are now 33 cafés and an expanding catering division with locations in California, Washington, D.C. and Seattle.

“We firmed up our supply chain early on, establishing a status quo with a number of vendors. As organic has grown more mainstream, it’s become easier to source ingredients,” says Brown, adding that the menu is 75 percent organic—a number they are constantly working to surpass. (The remaining 25 percent is all-natural.) Suppliers include United Natural—the country’s largest organic distributor—as well as Sysco and specialty purveyors like Organic Valley for dairy foods.

Organic to Go gets the goods to its locations through a hub and spoke model. “Deliveries come to central commissaries and we transport both ready-made food and raw ingredients to the stores,” Brown explains. Culinary director Greg Atkinson has developed signature items for the breakfast and lunch-oriented concept, such as the popular chicken chili, but custom wraps, salads (from the 16-foot bar) and sandwiches are made to order on site. “We offer a very normal cuisine,” Brown notes.

Even though food costs are rising overall, Brown has noticed a significant drop in the price of organics—especially in foodservice—since he got into the business.  

Sellers Markets
San Francisco
To co-founder Deb Sellers, sustainable means leaving no carbon footprint. “We purchase from local purveyors, make everything in-house (from chicken broth to barbecue sauce), compost 75,000 pounds per year and use tables made from reclaimed wood,” she says. Sellers Markets’ three locations are all in the Bay Area, so there’s an abundance of sustainable suppliers like Petaluma Poultry, Earthbound Farm, San Francisco Specialties, Artisan Bakers and Equator Estates fair-trade coffee and tea right in their backyard. Taking a cue from fine dining, the fast-casual Sellers Markets prints producers’ names on the menu and offers handouts and stickers to promote their vendors’ commitment.

The first order of business when they opened was to find these and other key local purveyors, secure the relationships and then figure out the distribution logistics. Taste—not organics—was top of mind in lining up sustainable products. “We had to really work the system,” Sellers claims. “Sysco is Petaluma’s distributor, so they took us on and helped us secure contracts with other local purveyors. We wanted partners who could grow with us.”

Securing local vendor partnerships has also helped hold down prices. Although the average check has gone up slightly to accommodate the cost of raw materials (it’s now $8 to $10), fuel surcharges aren’t as much a factor. And when Niman Ranch raised its pork prices 40 percent, Sellers was able to find two smaller pork producers nearby to meet her needs and budget. 

Spago
Las Vegas
WELL is the acronym for Wolfgang’s Eating Loving and Living—the initiative that has been guiding purchasing for the 14 fine dining restaurants, 80 cafés and 43 catering venues in the Wolfgang Puck Companies. “Our guests are interested in the same issues that have long concerned us—sustainable farming and fishing, humane treatment of animals and reducing the hormones, antibiotics, preservatives and pesticides in the food we eat,” declared Puck when he announced WELL.

At the upscale Spago in Las Vegas, executive chef Eric Klein finds it easier than he expected to follow the directive. “We have always procured ingredients from farms and small producers. I have a truck that goes twice a week to the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market in California,” he says. “Now we’re working with more local growers, too.”

The WELL focus has also influenced Klein’s menu. “I let the ingredients be the stars and tend to use less embellishment,” he explains. This is evident in simple preps like Melon Salad drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and First of the Season Farmers’ Market White Corn Agnolotti. Spago’s broadliner, U.S. Foodservice, has helped by bringing in more products from suppliers that conform to WELL.