Supporting local green restaurants

The Green Table Network (GTN) is a Vancouver-based non-profit group with a simple-yet-innovative mandate: to help restaurants and foodservice operators do more for the environment so people who choosing a Green Table member when dining out know that they are supporting restaurants that are making efforts to reduce their environmental footprint.

These efforts include a measurable commitment to serve more meats, seafood, produce, baked goods and dairy products from sustainable and/or local sources. To support this, we’re helping restaurants get more of what they need and use most often. In collaboration with growers, distributors and other partners, such as local farmers’ markets, Green Table is working to develop more kitchen-ready ingredients made from BC-grown or harvested products.  These measures help lessen the environmental and social impacts of global food transportation.

Perhaps more importantly, encouraging a more localized food economy will provide support for BC farmers and producers, preserve increasingly valuable farmland and stimulate economic opportunities in communities around the province. Even closer to home, Green Table members can also participate in emerging urban agriculture initiatives, creating opportunities for gardeners from all walks of life to produce and share in healthy, fresh food grown down the street or up on the roof.

Members of the GTN are helping set the benchmark for sustainable foodservice operations locally and nationally. The tools and techniques developed and tested here will help encourage all segments of the restaurant industry, from food courts to fine dining, family-owned independents to national brand multi-unit systems, to shift to more eco-efficient business practices.

The GTN loves to hear about innovative ways people are making their restaurants more sustainable. Their network of sustainable restaurants and foodservice outlets will continue to grow and will be listed and indexed on their website. Become a ‘regular’ at the Green Table. Join area chefs, farmers, bakers, restaurateurs, food artisans, servers and others in setting a more sustainable table. Please support GNT members. They’re making a measurable difference in our world.