 Public Policy Center
Audio/Video
Arkansas Green Restaurant Alliance (AGRA)
(3 minutes: 30 seconds)
WMV (high speed video)
(3 minutes: 30 seconds)
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Audio/Video Script:
Kathy Webb, Co-founder of AGRA and owner of Lilly’s Dimsum, Then Some
[Announcer] [Logo of the Arkansas Green Restaurant Alliance] Arkansas’
restaurants and other food service organizations have created the Arkansas Green
Restaurant Alliance or AGRA to encourage the use of sustainable practices within
its industry.
[Kathy Webb] AGRA was formed about a year ago. And it was sort of the
brainchild of Nancy Tesmer and me and Brent Peterson and Capi Peck Peterson to
try to get restaurant owners more aware of what they could do to be better
stewards of the environment.
[Picture of Trios Restaurant, Capi's Restaurant, and Lilly's Dimsum Then Some
Restaurant] Among all retail outlets, restaurants use about from three to five
times much energy as other retail kinds of businesses. And when you think about
it, it makes sense because we’ve all the time got ovens going, fryers going, a
lot of refrigeration, a lot of lights in the dining room and places like that,
so we contribute a lot to the amount of energy we use in the United States, so
it’s something we need to be more aware of.
[Announcer] [Logo of the Arkansas Green Restaurant Alliance and the recycling
logo] Alliance members are practicing a variety of environmentally friendly
initiatives.
[Kathy Webb] [Picture ot takeout food try and cups] The first thing is trying
to use biodegradable take out containers and that was something that we
researched for several years at my restaurant until we found some containers
that would hold up, that would keep the food hot, that wouldn’t spill, wouldn’t
break, umm, and that would allow us to stop using Styrofoam containers. So when
you have one restaurant using a particular biodegradable container, it’s fairly
expensive but if you can get 20 restaurants to use the same biodegradable
container then it’s an affordable thing for your business so you’re doing the
right thing and you’re not really hurting the bottom line.
We also share information with each other about types of equipment that are
more energy efficient. [Picture of a freezer/regrigerator ad] There are a lot
more energy efficient water heaters and fryers and ovens [picture of a new fryer
and oven] and fans and icemakers, just all across the board. [Picture of enegery
saving light bulbs] Changing light bulbs and not using plastic bags, plastic
to-go bags, that’s something that we decided to quit doing a couple of years
ago. Umm, and, umm, recycling is a huge component of what we’re trying to get
the restaurant owners to do.
[Announcer] [Logo of the Arkansas Green Restaurant Alliance] Although only a
year old, AGRA is steadily increasing its membership.
[Kathy Webb] I would say we have about 20 to 25 members, including the local
Burger King franchisee, Vino’s, Cheer’s, Loca Luna, Bene Vita, Lilly’s, Capi’s
and Trio’s, Za Za, Boulevard, Napco, which is one of the vendors who helps with
a lot of the products we use, the environmentally friendly chemicals, the
Governor’s Mansion is a member and participated in one of our activities and
then we’ve got the folks from Pulaski Tech Culinary School also members.
[Picture of restaurant signs, logos and the Governor's Mansion ballroom]. And I
think within the next year, we really hope to maybe get up to 50 restaurants.
[Announcer] The following was brought to you by the Arkansas Energy Office
[logo], and the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Public Policy
Center [logo].
To learn more about sustainable, cutting edge and renewable energy
alternatives in Arkansas, go to
www.arkansasenergy.org or
www.ppc.uaex.edu.
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