Engrained 4-Star Rating
Engrained Café Earns 4-Star Green Restaurant Certification
Loyola’s green café Engrained recently received a 4-star certification from the Green Restaurant Association, the highest possible distinction from the organization.
Engrained is located on Loyola's Lake Shore Campus in San Francisco Hall.
Located in San Francisco Hall on Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus, Engrained is a “fast-casual, quick-serve restaurant designed to be an educational food experience surrounding sustainability with a focus on what we are making, the ingredients used, and how they are handled.” The café offers a wide variety of options with a focus on vegetarian and vegan items as well as seasonal and locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The space features sustainable furniture from local Chicago manufacturers and plenty of room for students to study or relax.
The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) is an international non-profit organization founded in 1990. It encourages restaurants to become more environmentally responsible, a goal outlined on their website as “providing a transparent way to measure their accomplishments while providing a pathway for the next steps they can take to increase their environmental sustainability.” In addition to evaluating and certifying restaurants, the GRA also offers educational resources and environmental consulting for partner organizations.
Certification levels use a system of GreenPoints™ to standardize sustainable practices and products implemented within restaurants. For example, restaurants in Chicago are required to recycle, compost, and be polystyrene foam free to begin the certification process. From there, restaurants can earn points across eight categories by incorporating sustainable practices and limiting their reliance on wasteful or unsustainable materials and processes. The categories include all aspects of restaurant management and promote sustainability in energy, water, waste, reusables/disposables, chemicals/pollution, food, building/furnishing, and education/transparency.
With its location in the same LEED-certified building as the School of Environmental Sustainability, Engrained was already implementing sustainable practices for lighting and climate control. However, to get a 4-Star Certification, restaurants must earn enough GreenPoints across all eight GRA categories. Jordan Davis, Aramark Sustainability Manager for Loyola, worked with a consultant from the Green Restaurant Association to complete the certification process. This involved developing and implementing sustainable practices in these areas and conducting a virtual walkthrough of Engrained that allowed the GRA consultant to verify the environmental work in the café.
“Being certified as a 4-Star Green Restaurant confirms our dedication to doing what’s best for the environment,” Davis explained. “It not only shows that our everyday operational practices are in line with sustainability, but also that we are committed to continuing to work towards other solutions that will reduce our carbon footprint and help our café operate in an environmentally-friendly way.”
Though the 4-Star Certification is the highest achievable honor from the GRA, Engrained’s sustainable efforts will continue developing as they maintain a close relationship with their consultant. This partnership will allow them to work with the Green Restaurant Association to come up with new sustainable projects and grant them access to the most up-to-date research on environmentally conscious restaurant practices.
This forward-looking mindset is part of what makes Loyola one of the greenest campuses in the country. Engrained is the flagship sustainability-focused café on campus, but Loyola has been working with Aramark and other partners for years to create a university community that puts the environment first in all areas. Loyola measures these efforts by voluntarily submitting data to a Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System (STARS) report every three years. STARS is a project of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). AASEH describes the system as a “transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.” Loyola has maintained a gold STARS rating since 2017. Megan Conway, Loyola’s Sustainability Coordinator for the Office of Sustainability, explained that “the STARS report provides a great way to benchmark against our peers and an opportunity for valuable self-reflection on the university’s sustainable practices.”
In addition to this reporting, Loyola strives to implement sustainable food sourcing and management methods through its partnership with Aramark. One such project is the university’s relationship with A Just Harvest, an organization fighting poverty and hunger in the Rogers Park community by providing nutritious meals and encouraging sustainable practices. Loyola’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network works closely with A Just Harvest to donate leftover food from the campus dining halls to those in need.
Loyola University Chicago is committed to being a driving force for sustainability among collegiate institutions. The recent achievement of a 4-Star Green Restaurant Certification for Engrained Café is an exciting affirmation of this goal.
Story by Mars Reilly
Located in San Francisco Hall on Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus, Engrained is a “fast-casual, quick-serve restaurant designed to be an educational food experience surrounding sustainability with a focus on what we are making, the ingredients used, and how they are handled.” The café offers a wide variety of options with a focus on vegetarian and vegan items as well as seasonal and locally-grown fruits and vegetables. The space features sustainable furniture from local Chicago manufacturers and plenty of room for students to study or relax.
The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) is an international non-profit organization founded in 1990. It encourages restaurants to become more environmentally responsible, a goal outlined on their website as “providing a transparent way to measure their accomplishments while providing a pathway for the next steps they can take to increase their environmental sustainability.” In addition to evaluating and certifying restaurants, the GRA also offers educational resources and environmental consulting for partner organizations.
Certification levels use a system of GreenPoints™ to standardize sustainable practices and products implemented within restaurants. For example, restaurants in Chicago are required to recycle, compost, and be polystyrene foam free to begin the certification process. From there, restaurants can earn points across eight categories by incorporating sustainable practices and limiting their reliance on wasteful or unsustainable materials and processes. The categories include all aspects of restaurant management and promote sustainability in energy, water, waste, reusables/disposables, chemicals/pollution, food, building/furnishing, and education/transparency.
With its location in the same LEED-certified building as the School of Environmental Sustainability, Engrained was already implementing sustainable practices for lighting and climate control. However, to get a 4-Star Certification, restaurants must earn enough GreenPoints across all eight GRA categories. Jordan Davis, Aramark Sustainability Manager for Loyola, worked with a consultant from the Green Restaurant Association to complete the certification process. This involved developing and implementing sustainable practices in these areas and conducting a virtual walkthrough of Engrained that allowed the GRA consultant to verify the environmental work in the café.
“Being certified as a 4-Star Green Restaurant confirms our dedication to doing what’s best for the environment,” Davis explained. “It not only shows that our everyday operational practices are in line with sustainability, but also that we are committed to continuing to work towards other solutions that will reduce our carbon footprint and help our café operate in an environmentally-friendly way.”
Though the 4-Star Certification is the highest achievable honor from the GRA, Engrained’s sustainable efforts will continue developing as they maintain a close relationship with their consultant. This partnership will allow them to work with the Green Restaurant Association to come up with new sustainable projects and grant them access to the most up-to-date research on environmentally conscious restaurant practices.
This forward-looking mindset is part of what makes Loyola one of the greenest campuses in the country. Engrained is the flagship sustainability-focused café on campus, but Loyola has been working with Aramark and other partners for years to create a university community that puts the environment first in all areas. Loyola measures these efforts by voluntarily submitting data to a Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, & Rating System (STARS) report every three years. STARS is a project of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). AASEH describes the system as a “transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance.” Loyola has maintained a gold STARS rating since 2017. Megan Conway, Loyola’s Sustainability Coordinator for the Office of Sustainability, explained that “the STARS report provides a great way to benchmark against our peers and an opportunity for valuable self-reflection on the university’s sustainable practices.”
In addition to this reporting, Loyola strives to implement sustainable food sourcing and management methods through its partnership with Aramark. One such project is the university’s relationship with A Just Harvest, an organization fighting poverty and hunger in the Rogers Park community by providing nutritious meals and encouraging sustainable practices. Loyola’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network works closely with A Just Harvest to donate leftover food from the campus dining halls to those in need.
Loyola University Chicago is committed to being a driving force for sustainability among collegiate institutions. The recent achievement of a 4-Star Green Restaurant Certification for Engrained Café is an exciting affirmation of this goal.
Story by Mars Reilly