Firms cater to new ‘green’ trend

To the “three R’s” of environmentally friendly catering — reuse, recycle and renewable resources — add a fourth: reinvention.

Caterers and event planners are working hard to both lead and follow the trend. Some now routinely use disposable plates and utensils, even cups and saucers, made out of corn byproducts for informal occasions to replace the plastics that are not immediately biodegradable. One far-seeing company that handles flowers and other decorative elements, JLB Floral of Alexandria, has invented an entirely new item, turning metal roof flashing and tin cans, both normally on the recycled list, into walls and columns for environmental effect.

“We get requests for eco-catering that started with brides and now includes corporate clients,” says Kathy Valentine of Design Cuisine — caterers that often use JLB Floral for client events. “For a generation of young men and women, it’s important to look to the future and live well in daily life, starting with their wedding. They want food items responsibly sourced, like fishes that are not depleting the ocean. Everybody looks at what is sustainable, like choosing LED lights.”

She has seen ottomans made out of recycled flip-flops, shopping carts converted into chairs, tables made out of bicycle wheels, and cushions formed from old clothes.

“I’m not the greenest guy, with only 17 miles to the gallon [in gas mileage], but I want every event to be as green as it can be,” says David Shackley, vice president of Global Events for Discovery Communications, speaking both as a sponsor — 200 different kinds of functions in the next 10 months alone — and occasional catering company client. He even wants to make serving trays “green” and lower the wattage of the lighting. “I’ll assume the hard invites [invitations] will be recyclable and be of soy ink, although I’d rather send out electronic invites.”

Restaurant Nora, on Florida Avenue Northwest, pioneered organic menus and wine in the city and is the first restaurant to be so certified. The same effort extends to parties, and especially wedding parties, held on-site, says Camilla Rothwell, director of special events.

“Definitely people are more conscious of what they are eating,” she says. “And we get some brides wanting plants instead of cut flowers.”

Alexa Mann, a self-described “foodie,” chose Nora’s for her March 8 wedding to Stephen Sclafani because of its reputation as certified organic.

“It reminded me of the food aspect and culture of Vermont, where it is very much primary,” she says.

A former Washingtonian, she now lives in Burlington, Vt., where she hopes to open her own catering business centered on organic food.

“Green is so broad,” says Ellen Kasoff Gray, who along with her chef husband, Todd Gray, has formed Equinox Catering after their restaurant, which is well-known for promoting locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. She describes the disposable dinnerware they use for the $15-a-head office lunches they cater as “brown instead of the usual shiny black.” She says clients are receptive to it, but “at first you have to explain about it.” The real problem, she says, is finding the disposable items made from corn byproducts at wholesale prices.

“You always have to think of more ways to incorporate [green items] but not have it be more expensive,” says Aimee Dominick of A. Dominick Events on K Street Northwest. A trained chef herself, she has worked with the newly formed Equinox Catering.

Danielle Venokur, whose Manhattan firm DVGreen is advertised as “sustainable event design and production,” finds demand for a green theme high. It’s high enough that New York-based writer Starre Vartan, founder and editor of Eco-chick.com, has a chapter on parties in her book due this summer called “The Eco-Chick: How to Live Fabulously Green.”

Ms. Venokur will put out mason jars filled with local flowers or use wheat grass in sustainable containers whenever possible. Trash receptacles clearly meant for recyclable cans and glass were the order of the day at a Greener Gadgets conference by Hewlett-Packard. “The client said to make it as green as possible,” she says.

Arranging food and decor this way “is a lot of work,” she says. “You have to work with vendors willing to deal with the headaches involved.”

Private schools in the greater Washington area are pushing for disposable products, reports Susan Lacz, CEO of Ridgewell’s Caterers, saying her firm long has used organic food from local sources. She now is looking at sustainable fish — those caught by hook, not by netting — and will have trout in their spring line to satisfy any demand.

“Green is a buzz word that hasn’t sorted itself out yet in my industry,” says Eric Michael of Occasions Caterers, who estimates from 8 percent to 10 percent of his clients raise the issue and predicts that figure will rise to 20 percent in the future.

Arranging organic food choices in bulk can be difficult, he says. Promising organic strawberries — which are highly perishable because they are grown without pesticides — and then not being able to deliver them in quantities is one of the challenges, he says.