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The other day I was thinking what if we had a perfectly green fast food chain in America. What would it look like? You’d need…
- A sustainable building – powered by alternative energy, built green, and in an easily accessible area (off course most fast food is in an easily accessible area).
- All organic menu for food and drinks. No toxins, no chemicals, etc.
- Biodegradable and or recycled dishes, menus, paper products, and so on, or reusable dishes (for customers who want to bring dishes back after use to refill or what not) plus a design that allowed for less use of these items.
- Maybe you’d have a drive through, but offer discounts to customers who don’t use it. All that idling – ick.
- Food that’s fast and affordable and tastes good – although good taste is relative I guess. I think McDonald’s food tastes like crap, but millions of people love it.
- Eco-company policies – recycling program, paper free offices, organic tees, etc.
It would be a lot of work to create a perfect green fast food restaurant. One of my friends told me that he thinks a green fast food restaurant would have to be careful because the food would need to taste good. I told him that I think that’s a common misconception about organic food – just because it’s organic doesn’t mean it tastes worse. I think people place organic and “healthy” together and while I do think organic is healthier in the long run, it’s not like you should be eating 10 organic hamburgers a week or organic pizza and ice cream each day. That’s just as unhealthy as eating conventional junk food.
But for the times people do eat junk food wouldn’t it be better to have an organic and green choice? At least it would be a little more sustainable than traditional not-eco fast food on every corner. PLUS maybe you could mix in some healthier fare and get some people off this train wreak of an obesity issue we’ve got going on in America.
Actually there are a few fast food places (very small chains or one hit places) who have some decent models going on and soon we’ll look at some of these places and see how they might be better than traditional fast food.
[images via stock.xchng]
The other night I decided to go and grab some hot cakes from McDonalds about 5am in the morning. I brought the food back to my house and made some eggs and beef sausage to go along with the hot cakes. I had a total of 4 and half hot cakes with the eggs and sausage. I went outside after eating and began to pass gas heavily, and when I say heavily I really mean it! Before I finished smoking my after meal smoke my stomach began to burn. So I ran to the bathroom and let loose in there. This was not the first encounter with McDonalds foods. Anytime I eat something from them I have to use the bathroom within 1 or 2 hrs every single time. This previous hot cake experience happend within 10mins which now a new record.
That’s actually a very good question you pose. Ideally we would like all structures to be LEED certified, but I suppose it is a little hypocritical to even expect it. Fast food causes people to eat unhealthy foods, yet we expect the corresponding structure to be environmental sustainable? The concepts aren’t completely related, but it is rather interesting to think about. Maybe a LEED certified building will set the pace for what a “new” look at life should be like; maybe fast food chains will become healthier, not as a result of getting sued or scandalous documentaries, but because they feel they need to do their part to help out society.
982 days ago
[...] // In a previous post I outlined what I thought would be some good policies and design ideas for a greener fast food restaurant. Then I noted that there are some restaurants around the country already following greener [...]
982 days ago
[...] a Comment // Savoring your food and thereby eating less is advice that’s been around for a bit. Yet, it’s nice to know that research backs [...]
Yeah, Cedar and me don’t do much fast food either. I HATE how most of it tastes and they don’t offer organics for Cedar. Cedar doesn’t like the taste much either or eat meat and then he read in the new 50 Simple Things for kids that fast food is bad for the planet so now he’s all we can’t eat there. BUT once in a while he wants to go to get a kids meal + it’s fast if you’re in a hurry. Like the other day we were pressed for time and he sort of likes Carl Jr (sp?) so we went there then I started looking at all the stuff that could be green. There’s a lot of easy changes these places could make to improve.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I’d like it if Chic-fil-A went green. They use styrofoam glasses and lots of other stuff that’s not easy to recycle. I live near one and it’s always busy, so that’s a lot of packaging waste. And nearly everyone does the drive-through. If you go inside, it’s not busy at all.
I don’t go there a lot, but when I do I feel guilty about the excessive food packaging.