Every Day is Earth Day

More than ever before, Americans expect their meals to not only be delicious, but sustainable and local too. My first touchpoint with sustainability was hearing Meryl Streep talk about pesticides on apples back in 1990, and that motivated me to get involved in the movement.

Then the Monterey Bay Aquarium invited me to exchange ideas with other industry leaders about how seafood purchasing affects the oceans, and that was incredibly eye-opening for me. After those talks, Susan and I decided to radically restructure our restaurant menus to champion sustainable seafood according to Seafood Watch.

We also created a ‘Good for the Planet, Good for You’ program at Border Grill to let customers know which items are at least 80% plant-based and received a ton of great feedback because it gives guests choice and allows them to participate in our sustainability efforts.

That’s why at every location we continue to design menus with an eye toward protecting the environment, including use of organic fruits and vegetables, meats grown without antibiotics, sustainably caught seafood, and plenty of vegetarian and vegan friendly dishes sprinkled in.

Every day when we decide what to eat, we get to choose what kind of impact we’ll have on the Earth. We can all become food activists and collectively build back a food system that is better for the planet, our bodies and every worker.

Happy Earth Day every day,

Mary Sue and Susan