Green Living Science

1331 Holden St
Detroit, MI 48202

Feature Story Contact Information:

January 15, 2020 Avery Zimmerman, Public Relations

Cell: (313) 719-8147
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Email: ga3823@wayne.edu

Grosse Pointe Park Restaurant Dumps Its Dumpster

Red Crown Switches to Green Alternatives With Help From Detroit Nonprofit

Grosse Pointe Park, Mich. – They started with collecting kitchen compost, moved to plate
scrapings and eventually decided to ditch their 8-yard dumpster.

Red Crown restaurant has completely transformed their business in an effort to help save the
environment.

Employees at Red Crown decided to explore sustainable alternatives when they noticed the
dumpster was always filled to the brim even though it was emptied three times a week. They
began wondering what they could be doing to prevent all their waste from just going into the
dumpster.

That’s when they discovered the Bee Green Business certification program at Green Living
Science, a nonprofit based in Detroit.

The program offers both education and certification “to aid businesses and their employees in
becoming responsible corporate citizens,” according to its mission statement. It is one of the
nonprofit’s programs aimed at solving metro Detroit’s unsustainable trash problem.
Green Living Science came out to do a waste reduction assessment of their space and determined
the most successful way to set up a recycling program and reduce the waste produced in their
facility.

The staff at Red Crown also received onsite training to learn about materials that can and cannot
be recycled in their new recycling program.

After completing the certification, Red Crown now uses only a few trash containers and multiple
recycling carts that are serviced by the city. They also began collecting kitchen compost and
plate scrapings, which is picked up by Midtown Composting and taken to metro Detroit farms.

Red Crown is not only successfully adopting practices that help the environment, they’ve also
saved around $760 annually doing it. Their savings mainly came from preventing solid waste
through shipping and receiving, office operations and the amount of excess food they used in the
kitchen.

“Businesses have to ask themselves where they can reduce waste,” said Natalie Jakub, executive
director of Green Living Science. “Can we switch to reusable containers? Can we start printing
only essential pages and have employees view the rest online? There’s room for change.”

Red Crown isn’t the only metro Detroit business to complete the Bee Green Certification. Green
Living Science has helped businesses big and small, like the Detroit Institute of Arts, the
Michigan Science Center and other restaurants like Brooklyn St Local and PizzaPlex.

When businesses complete the program, they get a Bee Green Certification sticker they can
display in their window or office space. This sticker assures customers the business they are
supporting has adopted sustainable and environmentally friendly practices.

“People don’t realize how huge of an impact local businesses make on a city,” said Jakub.
“Starting with them can be the solution to solving environmental problems in metro Detroit.”
The Bee Green Business certification isn’t the only program Green Living Science offers.
Among many, they also do field trips and assemblies that focus on providing recycling and
environmental education for students and started a curbside recycling program for Detroit
residents.

“Our ultimate goal is to make Detroit a greener place,” said Jakub. “Every program we do is
meant to get us closer to that goal.”
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Media List:

Jody McVeigh, Editor at Grosse Pointe News

jmvveigh@grossepointenews.com

Jody primarily writes the feature stories at Grosse Pointe News.

Recent article: https://www.grossepointenews.com/articles/comfort-during-crisis-donation-

provides-teddy-bears-to-children-facing-trauma/