Name: Michael Oshman
Title: Executive Director
Organization: Green Restaurant Assn.
Year Founded: 1990
My primary responsibilities: “I supervise most of the employees here and make sure that everything we do matches our mission and the sincerity of it. We make a point of remembering why we are here, which is to help our industry reach a point of sustainability.”
Organization’s most significant environmental accomplishment so far: “The thousands of individual steps we have helped restaurants make throughout the years, the pollution we have helped to prevent, the trees we have prevented from being cut down.”
Our biggest environmental challenge: “Helping to educate. There is a lot of information out there in the marketplace about products that is not accurate. We are constantly spending our time and resources to make sure restaurateurs and distributors have access to credible information. Our challenge is to also ensure that the general population gets accurate information.”
What I like most about what I do: “What I enjoy most is seeing evidence of real action—cumulative environmental change.”
What advice I would give to a restaurant operator considering going green: “Don’t try to re-invent the wheel on your own.”
BOSTON—For 18 years now, Michael Oshman has delivered the message of sustainability to restaurateurs. In the last few years, many more people have started to listen to him—even some of the biggest restaurant operators in the country. That is good news for the restaurant industry and good news for the environment.
As executive director of the Green Restaurant Assn. (GRA), a five-employee operation in Boston, Oshman has a lot on his plate. In addition to overseeing the organization’s staff, he does a lot of public speaking and is often sought after by the media for comments on today’s hottest green industry trends.
There are five components to GRA: research, consulting, education, public relations and marketing, and community organizing and consumer activism. At the core of its operations is its Certified Green Restaurant program. There are currently 256 GRA members and Oshman says that number is expected to grow substantially. To become certified, participants join GRA and then undergo an assessment to determine four areas where there is the greatest potential for environmental and financial savings.
Annual Improvements Required
Once the four areas are determined, Oshman’s staff works with the restaurant to implement the changes. GRA has built a large database of manufacturer and distributor names from which it can recommend products. After a restaurant makes the four recommended changes and is Styrofoam-free and recycling, it is certified. Restaurants can join GRA for just one year or multiple years. As long as a restaurant is part of the association, it has to make at least four environmental changes a year.
Steps restaurateurs can take fall into the categories of energy efficiency and conservation, water efficiency and conservation, recycling and composting, sustainable food, pollution prevention, recycling, biodegradable and organic products, chlorine-free paper products and non-toxic cleaning products, green power, and green building.
Those restaurant operators who join GRA receive the organization’s book entitled, Dining Green: A Guide to Creating Environmentally Sustainable Restaurants and Kitchens, which explains the environmental impact of the restaurant industry and a path toward ecological sustainability.
Interest Grew at Early Age
Having been raised in a home where he was taught that we are all here to do something good, Oshman finds it hard not to want to make positive change—especially in light of what is going on with the environment.
“How can I not go out into the world and address this issue,” Oshman asks. “There is no reason for there to be toxic chemicals in restaurants. There is no reason to be sending waste to landfills.”
The message of sustainability is getting through to an increasing number of restaurant industry representatives.
“Finally, we are in a place where everybody’s listening,” Oshman says. “It is exciting for the future. There are a lot of people thirsty for this. Manufacturers are coming to us and asking us what they need to do to get our endorsement.”
Go to the Green Restaurant Assn. for more details.
Glenn Hasek can be reached at editor@greenlodgingnews.com.
