BY MARISSA OSWALD In the midst of the rise of all-organic, locally-sourced food sold in Wholefoods and farmer’s markets across Philadelphia, going out for a burger at a fast food joint seems very last century. Surely, buying a sandwich from Panera or some fries from McDonald’s is giving in to the “evils” of the corporate food industry. Think again.
Greenopia, Philadelphia’s comprehensive online source for green places and products, ranked the city’s most sustainable chain restaurants using a leaf system- 4 leaves being the most sustainable, and 0 being the least.
The top three choices were EVOS, a burger joint, Le Pain Quotidien, a brand spankin’ new internationally-owned french bistro located on Walnut St, and Pizza Fusion, a pizzeria with vegan options.
These rankings are based on how extensive and well-cared for each chain’s sustainability reports were for the year as well as other elements such as green building design, supply chain, recycling, and stocking.
A newbie to Walnut St., Le Pain Quotidien, is an upscale, sustainable, and progressive version of Panera, complete with a gourmet menu, use of local and organic ingredients and green fixtures and appliances. Le Pain even composts it’s food to use as bio diesel and marks each of the vegan options (which are shockingly plentiful) on it’s menu with a little green leaf.As for sustainability reports, one of the most detailed reports this year came from what is known as the baddest boy in the sustainability game- McDonalds.
Yes, McDonalds. Although they are known for acquiring their “meat” from sketchy sources, processing their food until it changes flavor, texture, and color multiple times, and maintaining an image of artery-clogging but pocket-friendly calories, they produced a report that gave promising outlook for the company as a whole. They are improving their standards of meat, purchasing fair trade coffee and seafood, and recently opened 2 all-green stores. This caused McDonald’s to come into a whopping 8th place above Panera Bread, Subway and Dunkin’ Donuts.
Starbucks seems as though it would be a consistent runner-up, but winning only 3 out of 4 stars slid it only one slot above Mickey D’s. They scored well in all arenas except one: they have a mysteriously non-existent recycling policy. One worker admitted, “They made me throw out an entire stock of plastic cups just because the design changed slightly and they got a new shipment in.”
Restaurants around the city are breaking through their images to produce unexpected improvements to their eco footprints. While Le Pain Quotidien rules Center City as the most sustainable choice, the green appeal of Starbucks plummets to the bottom of the list and McDonald’s makes conscious steps toward turning over a new leaf.
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