St. Louis Earth Day Festival!

In This Member Letter:

*Food For Thought Award Nominees *STL Green Drinks *Composting Grant *GDA Festival Vendors *New GDA Certifications *GDA Recerts *Sustainable Resources

Dear Friend,

It's Earth month and this is a great time to let your customers know how you're being good stewards of the environment! A good place to start is to let them know that you've been certified by the Green Dining Alliance, a third party sustainability certification program. Circularity is the motto for the 2023 St. Louis Earth Day Festival. Do you sell reusable branded tumblers or coffee cups? Are you sourcing from sustainable local food purveyors? Do you donate to local organizations? Support local artists or other businesses in our region? Are you composting your unusable food scraps? These are just a few examples of how your business can support circularity in the St. Louis region. Thank you for your support in making our region more circular!

- Ben Daugherty (GDA Program Manager)

Food For Thought Award Nominees!

The winner of the 2023 Food For Thought Award will be announced on Saturday, 4/22, starting at 1pm on the main stage at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival. Here are the links to the Entertainment Schedule and Awards Page. Let's take a moment to congratulate the nominees for their outstanding work in sustainability!

StL Green Drinks

Support local, green dining and join in the conversations of fellow environmentalists and sustainable living advocates. The second Wednesday of each month will feature a new GDA-certified establishment for happy hour. STL Green Drinks will be hosting their May happy hour at the GDA-certified and newly renovated Mission Taco Joint in the Delmar Loop. See you there!

When: Wednesday, May 10th (5-7pm)

Location: Mission Taco Joint - 6235 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63130

*Contact [email protected] if you are interested in hosting a Green Drinks happy hour. Expected guest counts are typically 20-30 guests.

Grant Funding for Composting

Financial Support for Composting

If you have been GDA certified within the last 16 months, you will qualify to start receiving $20 off/month ($240/year) on your composting service bill. The funding will be accessible for 1 year and will need to be applied for each year. If you are currently paying a compost service to pick up your food scraps and would like to receive the financial support for composting, please click the link below to fill out the application form.

If you are not currently composting, this is a great opportunity to give it a try. Two services we recommend are Total Organics and New Earth Farm. If you have a smaller food scraps footprint, I would recommend New Earth Farm which offers 4-gallon bucket pickup options in addition to their larger tote pickup options.

Keeping food waste out of the landfill yields huge environmental benefits. When food waste is dumped into landfills it creates a lot of methane gas which is a big contributor to forced climate transformation. Composted food scraps are transformed into healthy viable soil for gardens. Another benefit is that your landfill footprint should decrease allowing you to re-evaluate the size and frequency of landfill pickups which should reduce costs.

Compost Financial Assistance Application

St. Louis Earth Day Festival
GDA Vendors!

New GDA Vendors!

Nobu's Joins The Delmar Green Dining District

The family run restaurant of Noboru and Taeko Kidera and their son, George Kidera, delivers an unforgettable Omakase experience, which means “I leave it up to you.” George Kidera has taken the lead on implementing sustainability into his family’s time honored traditional sushi business. Click here for more info!

Danforth Plant Science Center Cafe
The Danforth Plant Science Center has made sustainability their main focus since its inception in 1998.The cafe diverts 82% of its waste out of the landfill by recycling and composting both kitchen and customer food waste. The menu is 60/40 vegetarian/meat and offers several healthy options for its campus employees. Click here for a link to their page to learn more!

Park Avenue Coffee - Cortex

Park Ave Coffee takes pride in the fact that they are the only small batch air roasted coffee in St. Louis. They also operate the most eco-friendly roasting facility in the Midwest at their location in The Hill neighborhood producing 100% of the electricity used by 200 solar panels on the roof. Their air coffee roasters are 91% more efficient than a typical drum coffee roaster. Click here for a link to their page to read more!

Fiddlehead Fern

Fiddlehead Fern Cafe is a woman-owned and operated business located in the Shaw neighborhood. The once abandoned gas-station lot was completely renovated in 2017 to build the café. Now a buzzing community space, offering an all vegetarian menu in a biophilic atmosphere, Fiddlehead is always full of life and good vibes. Click here for a link to their page to read more!

GDA Recertifications

Clayton

Kirkwood

Vegware + Blue Planet

Vegware

Vegware uses a variety of renewable plant-based materials to manufacture their products. In its finished form, all Vegware packaging is compostable in commercial facilities. Check out their expansive catalog of renewable products for restaurants.

Blue Planet Chemicals

If Kuna is one of your distributors ask them about their Blue Planet chemical options for your dishwashing machine. Many are EPA certified and some are Safer Choice certified including the presoak and solid detergent which can be used in standard commercial dishwashing machines.