Gjelina—An Open-Minded Restaurant Curbing Food Waste

As our awareness of environmental impacts continues to grow, both customers and companies alike are trying to make alterations to better the effect we are having on our planet. It has become increasingly important due to the concerning issues that climate change, endangered species, and global warming have brought onto our planet.

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Unfortunately, divesting numbers of polluting practices do still take place in different forms, with many businesses not yet adopting sustainable approaches causing significant damage to our environment. A lot of these businesses encompass the food sector, with restaurants emitting staggering amounts of pollution.

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How Restaurants Have Negatively Impacted Our Environment So Far

Whilst being a great place to bond with friends and family members and gorge on mouth-watering delicacies, it’s unavoidable that many restaurants have a hugely negative effect on our environment.

Staggering amounts of food waste is produced daily through customers being unable to finish meals, food being sent back to the kitchen with complaints, and out-of-date ingredients being binned. This food waste is often sent to landfill sites where it takes up room and contributes to polluting our atmosphere. Packaging waste also comes with this. More often than not, this packaging is also constructed of harmful plastics that are non-biodegradable and non-recyclable.

Furthermore, chefs’ kitchens often use up a lot of energy through the burning of fossil fuels to cook food, releasing harmful carbon into the air. If this wasn’t enough already, cooking oils transfer to the atmosphere in the form of exhaust, which also negatively affects the air surrounding the restaurant in question.

Gjelina is constantly on the lookout for innovative, and eco-friendly solutions. This restaurant strives to make its mark in the crowded restaurant industry by providing customers with a developed approach in causing as least damage to the environment as possible.

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How Some Restaurants Are Making a Change

With restaurant practices being such a big problem concerning our ecosystem, some businesses in the food industry, such as Gjelina, have taken it upon themselves to take action. Low-waste and zero-waste restaurants continue to serve up locally-produced foods for the satisfaction and benefit of both customers and the environment. They push towards eco-friendly policies in producing less waste for the same, memorable restaurant experience.

Gjelina

Named after founder Fran Camaj’s mother, Gjelina is constantly on the lookout for innovative, eco-friendly solutions. This restaurant strives to make its mark in the crowded restaurant industry by providing customers with a developed approach in causing as least damage to the environment as possible.

This restaurant drives towards its mission of constructing a thoughtfully memorable experience with a variety of pleasant offerings that customers can indulge in, all whilst carrying this out in a more environmentally friendly way than the competition. Gjelina serves produce-forward and locally sourced food.

From being founded on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in 2008, the Gjelina restaurant business has continued to evolve with its impeccably high-quality menu embracing a range of cuisines driven by chef passion and customer desire. Long-term relationships with Southern Californian fishermen, farmers, ranchers, and co-ops have also helped ensure that the ingredients embedded within the carefully thought-out menu are locally produced for maximum sustainability.

The Gjelina Group now continues to expand as the demand for sustainable action in the food industry also expands. They have ownership of two restaurants, Gjelina and Valle, Gjusta. This deli-bakery offers customers a range of delicious goods, whilst GTA, the takeaway service, and Gjusta Goods, the retail store, also allow the Group to raise more awareness of what our environment means to us.

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What Can You Take Away From Gjelina’s Example In Business?

If you are a business person or a marketer, there are many things you can learn from Gjelina’s sustainable practices to help improve your own business. Customers do love buying into products or services that are conscious of being less harmful to our environment. Over the years, there has been a significant change in customer demand due to improved education of what certain polluting practices do to our ecosystem.

Therefore, by driving your own restaurant business forwards with eco-friendly practices and choosing to source food locally and select recyclable packaging options, you can give consumers a reason to pick your restaurant over competing businesses by exposing your brand as an active character in environmental awareness. Not only will you attract a wider customer base in this way, but you’ll also be able to generate higher profits.

Gjelina has shown restaurants across the globe that you can still be a successful company by taking eco-friendly actions, meaning that there is no reason for businesses not to change their ways. It’s time to leave harmful, unsustainable actions in the past and follow in the footsteps of Gjelina’s business!