Green Daily

I was interested when I read the headline of an article on The Kansas City Star's online website: Applebee's goes bold with stand on the environment. I dove into the article expecting to find changes to the way their nearly 2000 restaurants nationwide handle waste. Instead of new water conservation methods or compost innovations, I found that Applebee's now has a new $47 million "green" headquarters complete with rain garden.

Don't get me wrong, I am all for green architecture. I think it's a fascinating area of new construction but giving up an old headquarters for a new one built with Brazilian wood from a managed forest is not a "bold" stance on the environment. In a company overview, Applebee's mentions that they are involved with "environment stewardship" but the only example I found was of the building of their new headquarters.

I understand that Applebee's restaurants are franchised so in a sense it is up to the owners to take steps to curb their environmental impact. However, if a corporation can tell someone how many slices of onion to put on a burger, they can tell them how to manage their energy consumption and waste. The restaurant industry is one of the worst environmental offenders. It's going to take a lot more than a new office to change that.