She’s a green bean-counter; Sustainability for the food service industry.; Woman helps restaurants recycle waste, add local items.

The story of how Holly Elmore became a champion of sustainable food service practices is filled with plot twists and turns. Most are detailed on her eclectic resume, except for the light bulb moment when her seemingly illogical career decisions crystallized into the perfect opportunity.

It came during a conversation with Patrick Gebrayel, executive chef of Dunwoody Country Club. “I loved food. I always tried to be conscious. There was a flame inside of me, and he lit it,” Elmore said.

That flame was her desire to move the local food service industry toward more sustainable and green practices in both food preparation and disposal. She began with an informal meeting attended by 30 local chefs and Ron Wolf, CEO of the Georgia Restaurant Association (GRA). When a second meeting drew 90 chefs and representatives from several Atlanta institutions, Elmore knew the time was right.

The Green Food Service Alliance was born.

Elmore is founder and executive director of the organization, which currently operates as a division of the nonprofit GRA, provider of some financial assistance and political muscle. Initially, Elmore simply hoped to encourage more restaurants to use locally produced foods by linking chefs with area farms and educating them on the benefits of the slow food movement. But in just a year, the Green Food Service Alliance has gained national attention and support from the Environmental Protection Agency for creating a program to reduce and recycle waste from food service providers.

“On the sustainability side, restaurants have been trying for years to get more local foods onto their menus. The barrier was always the sense that it had to take on incremental cost,” Wolf said. “Holly was instrumental in breaking down some of those [barriers] and figuring out how to get things done.”

Wolf was impressed with Elmore’s passion and commitment. “Her willingness to educate herself was just remarkable. She has immersed herself in understanding everything from composting to recycling.”

Still, sustainability is a fast-growing movement, even for Elmore, who 28 years ago planned to make Atlanta a four-year stop on the way to somewhere else. She had hopes of becoming a CFO but quickly learned what the late ’80s glass ceiling was all about. So she did what many bean counters would never do — opened a catering company even though she had never so much as boiled an egg. She gained major corporate clients and later opened two event facilities but after 15 years, she moved on.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get a job. I wanted to create a lifestyle that was fluid and flexible,” Elmore said. She embarked on a series of experiences including stints as sales and marketing director for Wine South and advertising director for Restaurant Forum, the GRA’s official magazine, which all prepared her for her current role.

Elmore, as the sole staffer of Green Food Service Alliance, is as likely to give presentations to food service partners about energy-efficient appliances or nontoxic cleaning supplies as she is to organize chef tours to local farms such as a recent trip to Sweet Grass Dairy in Thomaston where 20 Atlanta chefs spent the day making cheese, observing farm operations and enjoying lunch.

While Elmore believes chefs are on the front line in educating the public on sustainable food, she also recognizes the need to manage things from the other side. She drafted a proposal for a waste reduction and recycling program, lobbied a friend to create a brochure and received funding from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Within months, downtown Atlanta became the first Zero Waste Zone in the Southeast with 13 participants, including the Georgia World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome, the Westin and Hyatt hotels, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and Ted’s Montana Grill. Member organizations have three months to comply with standards such as collecting spent grease to be used in the local production of biofuel, donating excess food to feed the hungry, using organic waste for composting and recycling common materials.

Participation enabled Ecco restaurant to discontinue use of Dumpsters. Part of Fifth Group Restaurants, Ecco in Midtown was sending three 8-yard Dumpsters of trash to the landfill each week, said partner Steve Simon. Seven months ago they began a complete recycling program including glass, paper, plastic and metal and three months ago they began composting. Now the restaurant generates just a few bags of trash each week. “It was shocking for us,” said Simon, who serves on the Alliance board. “The best part of it for us is it hasn’t had to come at a financial expense.”

Larger operations such as GWCC found they were able to better direct their green efforts. “If green is a mountain, there are a lot of different paths to get up the mountain and there are efforts going on everywhere,” said Kevin Duvall, assistant general manager of the GWCC. “[GFA] brings a knowledge base to the equation that says, ‘It’s OK, you can go this way, but have you thought about this way?’ ” GWCC invested in a baler to make it easier to recycle corrugated board and the company began composting.

Elmore’s strategy is to appeal to economic sense as well as a sense of responsibility. She encourages companies to get involved because they want to and because, she believes, years from now everyone will wonder why they are not doing it anyway.

For now, Elmore says her goal is to see Green Food Service Alliance through the entrepreneurial phase. But down the line she envisions it as a national resource with case studies and prototype programs showing how it’s done.

The era of sustainability, she says, is here to stay — and so is she, until the next venture calls.

Greenopia, an online eco-company, awarded 11 of 23 chains examined zero out of four leaves. By Robin Hilmantel

Quick-serves might be faring better than most when it comes to recession-time profits, but they’re still just middle-of-the-road when it comes to sustainability, according to Greenopia, an online directory of eco-friendly businesses.

“It’s really hit or miss,” says Doug Mazeffa, research director for Greenopia. “Some of them, like Pizza Fusion, EVOS, and Le Pain Quotidien, they’re really good—to the point where they excel for a national company of any industry. … On the flip side, there are some companies who didn’t really do much of anything. It’s kind of frustrating because it’s not super consistent.”

Greenopia rates fast-food chains based on a four-leaf system that looks at sustainability reports, green building design, supply chain, recycling, and stock.

The result: While McDonald’s and Subway earned one leaf each for taking steps toward sustainability, several other big names in the industry, such Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby’s, and KFC, all earned zero leaves. Smaller chains, such as Pizza Fusion, EVOS, and Burgerville—each with 75 units or fewer, earned ratings of three or four stars.

Mazeffa says high-scoring brands impressed Greenopia with initiatives such as Pizza Fusion’s organic cotton uniforms or EVOS’ use of natural building materials and energy-efficient fixtures in its stores.

“It’s amazing the things they do,” Mazeffa says. “On the flip side, there are some companies who didn’t really do much of anything.” One that surprised Mazeffa was Wendy’s.

Even with more relaxed criteria than local restaurants face, Wendy’s received zero leaves (it was one of 11 restaurants on the list of 23 to do so).

“Wendy’s is typically considered one of the more healthier brands, and we really expected to see some sort of dedicated initiative based around the fact that they’re trying to promote the wholesomeness, the healthiness of their beef and their salads,” Mazeffa says. “Their reporting was nonexistent, and we couldn’t really find anything they were doing.”

Wendy’s declined to comment on the subject.

Yet, Mazeffa is willing to cut brands such as Wendy’s a bit of slack. “[Large chains] have a much more difficult supply chain to work with than a local restaurant that can go to the farmer’s market and get everything they need,” he says.

But EVOS’ co-founder, Dino Lambridis, thinks another factor beyond size is responsible for Greenopia naming EVOS the greenest burger chain.

“Even though EVOS serves fast-food with burgers, fries, and shakes, we do fall into the category of fast-casual,” Lambridis says. He thinks that the higher price point of fast-casual chains makes it easier for them to accommodate what can sometimes be the added expense of making eco-friendly decisions.

“One of the detriments to green products is price and then perceived lower quality for certain things,” Mazeffa says. “Those kind of fast-casuals, since they are significantly more expensive, can build that in to some extent.”

Accordingly, Chipotle earned two leaves and Panera earned one on Greenopia’s rating system.

For chains that have yet to earn their first leaf, Mazeffa points toward a sustainability report as a good first step for determining what might be the smartest—and most cost-effective—move for a company.

“The first step’s always the hardest,” Mazeffa says. “There’s really no magic bullet.”

While Greenopia has no set plans to expand its list of fast-food brand ratings beyond 23, Mazeffa would like to revisit the list some time soon.

“The food industry in general has changed so much in the last five years,” he says. “The fact that [the green movement] is trickling into fast-food and fast-casual restaurants is really impressive. … Based off the kind of success and feedback we’ve gotten [on the list], we do want to extend it.”

A full list of Greenopia’s fast-food chain ratings can be found here.

Quick-serves might be faring better than most when it comes to recession-time profits, but they’re still just middle-of-the-road when it comes to sustainability, according to Greenopia, an online directory of eco-friendly businesses.

“It’s really hit or miss,” says Doug Mazeffa, research director for Greenopia. “Some of them, like Pizza Fusion, EVOS, and Le Pain Quotidien, they’re really good—to the point where they excel for a national company of any industry. … On the flip side, there are some companies who didn’t really do much of anything. It’s kind of frustrating because it’s not super consistent.”

Greenopia rates fast-food chains based on a four-leaf system that looks at sustainability reports, green building design, supply chain, recycling, and stock.

The result: While McDonald’s and Subway earned one leaf each for taking steps toward sustainability, several other big names in the industry, such Burger King, Taco Bell, Arby’s, and KFC, all earned zero leaves. Smaller chains, such as Pizza Fusion, EVOS, and Burgerville—each with 75 units or fewer, earned ratings of three or four stars.

Mazeffa says high-scoring brands impressed Greenopia with initiatives such as Pizza Fusion’s organic cotton uniforms or EVOS’ use of natural building materials and energy-efficient fixtures in its stores.

“It’s amazing the things they do,” Mazeffa says. “On the flip side, there are some companies who didn’t really do much of anything.” One that surprised Mazeffa was Wendy’s.

Even with more relaxed criteria than local restaurants face, Wendy’s received zero leaves (it was one of 11 restaurants on the list of 23 to do so).

“Wendy’s is typically considered one of the more healthier brands, and we really expected to see some sort of dedicated initiative based around the fact that they’re trying to promote the wholesomeness, the healthiness of their beef and their salads,” Mazeffa says. “Their reporting was nonexistent, and we couldn’t really find anything they were doing.”

Wendy’s declined to comment on the subject.

Yet, Mazeffa is willing to cut brands such as Wendy’s a bit of slack. “[Large chains] have a much more difficult supply chain to work with than a local restaurant that can go to the farmer’s market and get everything they need,” he says.

But EVOS’ co-founder, Dino Lambridis, thinks another factor beyond size is responsible for Greenopia naming EVOS the greenest burger chain.

“Even though EVOS serves fast-food with burgers, fries, and shakes, we do fall into the category of fast-casual,” Lambridis says. He thinks that the higher price point of fast-casual chains makes it easier for them to accommodate what can sometimes be the added expense of making eco-friendly decisions.

“One of the detriments to green products is price and then perceived lower quality for certain things,” Mazeffa says. “Those kind of fast-casuals, since they are significantly more expensive, can build that in to some extent.”

Accordingly, Chipotle earned two leaves and Panera earned one on Greenopia’s rating system.

For chains that have yet to earn their first leaf, Mazeffa points toward a sustainability report as a good first step for determining what might be the smartest—and most cost-effective—move for a company.

“The first step’s always the hardest,” Mazeffa says. “There’s really no magic bullet.”

While Greenopia has no set plans to expand its list of fast-food brand ratings beyond 23, Mazeffa would like to revisit the list some time soon.

“The food industry in general has changed so much in the last five years,” he says. “The fact that [the green movement] is trickling into fast-food and fast-casual restaurants is really impressive. … Based off the kind of success and feedback we’ve gotten [on the list], we do want to extend it.”

A full list of Greenopia’s fast-food chain ratings can be found here.