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 5-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 large amounts of methane gas which is a major contributor to forced climate transformation. The food scraps that are composted 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.

St. Louis Earth Day Festival 2023

The St. Louis Earth Day Festival, April 22-23 at the Muny Grounds, is a community tradition to learn about sustainable products and services offered by local businesses and organizations. This is a great opportunity to connect with local area non-profits that share Earth Day values, as well as showcasing local entertainment and local Green Dining Alliance  restaurants. The 2022 festival brought in 15,000 attendees!

This is a great event to showcase your commitment to sustainable dining, increase sales, and grow your customer base.

Registration ended February 28, but we are extending the deadline. Send in your application ASAP!

Click the button below to sign up today!

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 March happy hour at GDA-certified Three Kings Public House in the Delmar Green Dining District.

When: Wednesday, March 8th (6-8pm)

Location: Three Kings - 6307 Delmar Blvd, University City, MO 63130

*Contact Ben@earthday-365.org if you are interested in hosting a Green Drinks happy hour. Expected guest counts are typically 20-30 guests.

Kirkwood - Where the Tortilla Magic Happens

The MTJ Kirkwood location is the production site of their tortilla chips and corn tortillas. This is where the masa for their tortillas are made in-house from scratch using non-GMO corn from IL farms. Their tortilla chips are now available for purchase at local Straub's grocery stores.

MTJ always uses sustainable to-go packaging with compostable boxes, hot cups, post-consumer napkins, and paper bags. Like the other MTJ locations, artwork from Craig Downs is proudly displayed throughout the space along with other artists such as the eye guy, Wollaeger.

MTJ uses sustainable food options with ASC certified tilapia approved on the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch app. The menu also has a wide variety of vegan/vegetarian offerings from Hungry Planet, and vegetarian/vegan substitutions like mushrooms, tofu, soy chorizo, and black beans.

Smart thermostats, KE2 Evaporators, an ENERGY STAR water heater, and LED TV drink menus help reduce their environmental impacts. Onsite composting through Total Organics helps them divert food waste from the landfills. On your next visit to Kirkwood grab some of the region's best Mexican, hit up their arcade, and grab a photo-op in front of their old repurposed Kirkwood train featuring the eye guy, Wollaeger!

Green Teams Make Green Dreams Happen

A green team is a group of dedicated individuals who come together to promote, identify, and implement specific solutions to help their organizations operate more sustainably. Your team can include employees from the kitchen, servers, bartenders, managers, bussers, and greeters. Including individuals from different areas of your establishment's operations helps you see what is going on "in the weeds, in the trenches," and these employees often have key insights on ways to be more efficient or sustainable. Employees will feel engaged and the ones that are passionate about sustainability will feel empowered to make a difference at their place of employment. Want to learn more about green teams? Click the OneSTL resource button below on Green Teams.

Be sure to attend the St. Louis Green Business Challenge 2023 kickoff event on March 9th from 4-7pm, featuring a panel discussion about green teams from local St. Louis businesses. Click the link below to sign up for this free event at Venture Café St. Louis in the Cortex Business District!

Greenwashing Today

Sustainability is a common household word and is involved in all facets of the business industry. Now, more than ever, companies are trying to figure out how to reach their customers while elevating their position on being environmentally friendly. Marketing sustainability is highly susceptible to greenwashing. So, what is greenwashing exactly? The act or practice of making a product, policy, activity, etc. appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it really is. We see this a lot when it comes to purchasing food and packaging products.

Food + Packaging Products

From consumers at grocery stores to chefs at your restaurant, there's a boatload of terms, labels, and certifications plastered over the packaging of food products. It's easy to mix them up and they're often confusing or vague. Some common greenwashing terms are natural, biodegradable, cage-free, farm fresh, and eco-friendly to name a few. There are many plastics that are labelled as "biodegradable," which technically is true, but it degrades into microplastics and does not turn into compost. It is often used to make us think it is compostable, especially on to-go packaging. Have you also noticed how certain products have changed their brand colors to shades of green? Known & Grown has a great resource page on terms to avoid and what different labels actually mean. Click the button below to check out their resource page on greenwashing food terms.

Steps You can Take to Avoid Greenwashing:

• Be Specific: “We use organic and ethically-sourced ingredients whenever possible,” is a vague statement and open to interpretation. Instead, be transparent about which menu items are sustainable including certifications. 
• Do Your Research: Be aware of false advertising. Research where you are getting your products, and don't be afraid to tell your distributors that you only want products with sustainable certifications! For example, check your biodegradable to-go containers for polystyrene foam. Polystyrene foam is very rarely recyclable and is not accepted in St. Louis area recycling facilities. Instead, look for BPI-certified products. Chemicals are another big one. Unless you're making the product or it's been certified by a third party like Green Seal or Safer Choice, you won't know if that product is environmentally friendly.
• Call Out Your Plant-Based Items: Customers are turning to plant-based meals for their health and to support sustainability efforts. Market your vegetarian or vegan items on your menu and social media.
• Measure Your Efforts: Are you reducing food waste, investing in green technologies, or utilizing alternative energy sources? Quantify your sustainability efforts and communicate that to your consumers. GDA is here to help you with this!