How to Put Some Green Into Your Business

Date: November 16 2008
Source: CNBC
Website: http://www.cnbc.com/id/27416031

What began as a campaign to cut costs through energy conservation has become something of an obsession for Jose Duarte.

The owner and head chef of Taranta restaurant in Boston’s historic North End, who received the City of Boston’s 2008 Green Business Award, has implemented more than 30 eco-friendly upgrades to his restaurant over the last two years.

Among them: an in-house carbonation system that eliminates bottled waste, a recycling and composting program that reduced the restaurant’s garbage production to a fraction of what it once was and a diesel delivery truck that’s been retrofit to run on filtered grease from the kitchen.

(It saves so much on gas that Duarte traded in his own sports utility vehicle for an older model Mercedes Benz that’s been converted to run on grease as well.)

“We try to synchronize eco-friendliness into every business decision we make,” says Duarte. “We’re still finding ways to conserve. If you save energy, you save money.”