Established in 1981, Atlasta has grown into the largest privately owned catering company in Arizona. The food industry on a national scale is not known for being environmentally ethical or proactive. In recent years there has been pressure to become ‘green’. This has resulted in many companies ‘going green’, sometimes actually doing so and sometimes not. The truth is being an environmentally ethical company is both ideal and an extremely intensive process. In an effort to fully inform our clients and staff regarding our end goals and steps we are taking to achieve them our course is carefully charted, evaluated and available for discussion.
TRASH: The average size restaurant creates more than 50000 pounds of trash every year. A catering company of our size has the potential to create much, much more. Most of this trash would go directly into a landfill unless proactive measures are taken. The city agency that picks up residential recyclables does not offer services to commercial properties. The burden is on the business to PAY to have recyclables picked up or stored and then taken to the correct facility. In addition to auditing our trash weekly, our trash is handled by:
FOOD WASTE: Extra food that is over prepared but never served is always donated to a local shelter. Food waste that is generated in the prep kitchens or as a result of an event, is put into our composters. Our compost is used for our planters and herb gardens.
METAL: Old metal equipment is recycled in addition to all metal/aluminum packaging.
GLASS: Our commercial recycling company does not accept glass at this time. We collect glass used both at our kitchen and at all events we cater. We store the glass and then deliver it to a recycling center.
PAPER: In addition to all paper products being recycled, all paper used in our office is printed on both sides to prevent excess waste. When office paper is purchases, recycled paper is bought.
DISPOSABLES: To effectively and substantially reduce waste generated on catered events, all disposable ware (cups, plates, cutlery, napkins )provided by Atlasta is compostable and biodegradable. We use biodegradable trash bags and plastic wrap and continually seek out compostable options. The current company we purchase from is a carbon neutral company.
POWER: Energy for our catering kitchen is 100% derived from wind and geothermal sources through APS. We pay the upgraded price to ensure the energy we use is ‘clean’.
VEHICLES: Carbon offsets are purchased annually to help deflect some of the damage done by our emissions. Future vehicle purchases will be based on alternative fuel choices.
EXPENSE OF OUR VENDOR DELIVERIES: In process to calculate to some degree of accuracy what our purchases’ delivery generates in carbon emission.
CHEMICALS AND CLEANSERS: To prevent our staff from breathing in harmful and abrasive chemicals while cleaning, Atlasta uses cleansers that are natural and plant based and still approved by the health department. The absence of bleach in our facilities ensures it stays out of the water supply.
LINEN: When our current contract with our linen provider is up, our linens will be done in-house in our laundry to eliminate harmful chemicals and give us the ability to purchase materials made from organic cotton or recycled materials.
UNIFORMS: sourcing organic cotton uniform sources
FOOD SOURCES: Atlasta strives to provide and serve food that is as close to its pure state as possible. That means we seek out producers that shun factory farming methods. Industrial factory farms are notorious polluters, reduce biodiversity, treat animals as objects without regard to their needs, put profit as the end goal above all else and often rely on growth hormones and antibiotics. To minimize our dependence on farms such as these we utilize the following buying guides:
EGGS: currently our eggs are organic, we are searching for a farm to supply us with organic eggs laid from truly free range, cage free hens.
POULTRY: current poultry is all natural, seeking a source for local, free range hens
PORK: current client choices are either all natural or cuts supplied through Niman Ranch
BEEF: current client choices are either all natural or cuts supplied through Niman Ranch
SEAFOOD: current seafood buying is under review to eliminate companies that participate in ocean decimation, trying to source companies that are marine stewardship council certified
PRODUCE: 50-60% of produce currently is organic, continuing to work towards 100% organic
BREADS: all bread is produced locally from two different bakeries, seeking an organic source
COFFEE: working toward implementing a organic/free trade coffee system and eventually obtaining coffee triple certified: organic/free trade/ shade grown
PEOPLE: Our ethical focus also includes the employees that make up Atlasta Catering. Paying employees an ethical wage means that the employee is paid a ‘living wage’. Simply put we strive to pay wages that ensure the employee is adequately compensated for their time and effort and that the compensation is enough to support their family effectively.
WAGES: Current pay scales meet the industry standard for service staff and exceed industry standard for kitchen staff. We are moving toward a model to enhance the service staff wages to exceed industry standards. We continually seek a company wide insurance option that is not cost prohibitive and are considering a company wide insurance ’credit’ option.
TRAINING: Continual education and availability of information is paramount to both the employee’s success and our company’s success. As such, from the initial interview, each person associated with Atlasta is fully aware of the companies practices, goals and environmental ethic.
COMMUNITY: We realize not only does Atlasta impact the local community but so do our employees. To reward employees who employ carbon saving practices when getting to and from work, such as carpooling, riding a bike, using public transport, we are developing a reimbursement program.
COMPOSTING/GARDENING: Our gardens do not produce a significant amount of product but keep employees aware of our goals and motivation.
