No matter where you live, save money and the environment on Earth Day with these nineteen Earth Day restaurant promotions from around the world.
1. Don’t Brown Bag It
If lunch in breakroom usually means balogna in a wadded up brown bag, we have great news. On Earth Day 2013, you can treat both yourself and the planet to a much better meal. Chipotle Mexican Grill is giving away free burritos with the purchase of a repurposed lunch bag, helping you save the earth one repurposed bag at time.
2. Earth Day Organic
Central 214 knows our planet doesn’t need chemists to make a head of lettuce. The Dallas restaurant celebrates Earth Day with a special menu of their locally sourced, organically grown vegetables, antibiotic-free meats and biodynamic wines. Why local? What’s biodynamic? Free conversation starters with every meal.
3. Join The Earth’s Club
In honor of Earth Day 2013, the Green Restaurant Association released a list of the most environmentally friendly restaurant chains in the country. They included Panera Bread, Jamba Juice, Peet’s Coffee, Hyatt Hotels, InterContinental Hotels and Wyndham Hotels. Corporate cafes at Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and the Hearst Corporation also made the list for their Earthcare practices.
4. Shaking Things Up
For EVOS – Greenopia’s 2011 “Greenest Burger Chain in America” and winner of Earth Charter’s Sustainable Business Award – every day is Earth Day. But to celebrate April 22, they are shaking things up a bit by offering patrons organic milkshakes for free. Order one with a side of airfries (oil-free french fries) from their menu printed with vegetable inks, and admire the marmoleum (ecologically produced linoleum) floors and recycled wood panel walls under compact fluorescent bulbs powered by 30% wind energy.
5. Fresh and Recycled
Green is not always great for the environment. Even a fresh salad can have a negative impact, if served in an unsustainable container. Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill offered patrons a new way to guiltlessly indulge with an eco-friendly twist. This Earth Day, the chain will team with The Bottle Box to use only 100 percent recycled packaging.
6. Low Impact Margaritas
Habana Works, New York’s first solar powered restaurant and marketplace, is really blowing-out Earth Day 2013. The collective will be celebrating in true Brooklyn style, by hosting a half-day fest full of sustainable living info, tools and demos. Among the various tinkering’s on display is a human-powered bike blender, an innovative way to craft your favorite frozen spring cocktail using alternative energy.
7. Wine, Wine, Wine
Are you fed up with arguing the merits of climate science? Relax. And nothing is more relaxing than a glass of fine organic wine that is as subtly nuanced as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. The Butcher’s Block in northeast Minnesota celebrates Earth Day with a complimentary, earth-friendly wine tasting. Certified organic and biodynamic wines are featured with professional vintners on hand to demonstrate how entirely unnecessary pesticides and chemicals are for making the best wine.
8. Plant a Treetini
Chicago’s Elate became well known for its Earth Day Treetini forestry project. For each Treetini sold, the restaurant planted a tree. Now, claiming a signature Earth Day drink has become a common and ecologically sound promotion. Drink enough Treetinis and the sky will be that much bluer as you look up at it from the sidewalk.
9. All Perked Up
What do we want on Earth Day 2013? A clean environment. How are we going to get it? Reusable coffee mugs. The folks at Caribou Coffee and Starbucks are encouraging patrons to skip the paper cups and bring their own mugs. Every person who does will receive free coffee refills all day long on April 22nd. The end of disposable cups might not be enough to save the world but, like coffee in the morning, it’s a start.
10. Sustainable Sustenance Recipes
When it comes to Earth Day, how can a restaurant, already famous for its commitment to sustainability, encourage patrons to take more action? Pizza Fusion’s answer is to offer the chance to win a trip for two to an organic vineyard and free food for a year. All contestants have to do is come up with the most Earth-friendly pizza recipe and submit it on a (paperless, of course) YouTube video.
11. Show Us You’re a Good Egg
Eggology, a supplier of organic liquid egg whites, helped Earth warriors achieve fame and egg-fortune by posting photos or videos of their most eco-friendly deeds. All documented Earth rescues were published on the company website and blog, but the deed judged best was awarded a case of Eggology egg whites.
12. Party With The Earthlings
Earth is more than ground, trees, water and air. Earth is people too. That’s why the Blue Sky Café chose Earth Day to host a community get-together: a special dinner with a guest speaker from the recycling center and recycled art projects for the kids. Everyone was invited to “get to know your neighbors” and, for added incentive, received $2 discounts for their recyclable bottles.
13. The Animal Called Earth
What we do to harvest animals harms the Earth almost as much as it harms our food supply. That’s why Bread & Brew works with Compassion Over Killing to go entirely vegan on Earth Day. And, because compassion is an environmental value, 10 percent of the day’s profits are donated to COK’s efforts to protect animals.
14. Earth Means Rock
Begun in 2010 as an Earth Day promotion, the Sweetlife Festival has become an annual celebration of the Earth-friendly lifestyle. The outdoor music festival, sponsored by salad, yogurt and organic food suppliers, has gained national attention and has been a mouthpiece for cause-based organizations to spread their messages.
15. 100 Mile Dinner
No, not a 100 mile table. A 100 mile radius of local sources for ingredients. Fortunately, The Grille at Morrison House is near the fertile farms of Virginia’s Chesapeake River valley. For the 2010 Earth Day promotion, Chef Dennis Marron sourced his entire four-course dinner from producers within a 100 mile-radius of the restaurant.
16. Cork It For the Earth
April 22nd = Earth Day = $22 off your bill. That is, if you bring 22 wine corks to Firefly restaurant in Washington, D.C. Every cork a patron brings in earns a dollar off the menu price, up to $22. So, do your part. Mother Earth is begging you to drink those 22 bottles of wine and eat that free gourmet dinner. All corks will be given to nearby Wente Vineyards to be used again.
17. Romancing Gaia
By candlelight, even pizza is certain to impress your date. La Madia Pizzeria is turning off the lights to celebrate Earth Day. With no energy wasted, couples can enjoy the Late Night Prix Fixe menu with wine and a clean conscience.
18. Renew Your Vow
Sweet Cakes, a Ukrainian Village bakery in Chicago, is asking customers to join them in “renewing their vow” to the Earth. Even though all their packaging and practices have long been eco-friendly, the green business wants to do more and have customers do more. So for the week leading up to Earth Day, everyone is invited to receive discounts and giveaways and help build up a bundle of cash to donate to the environmental group, Alliance for the Great Lakes.
19. Now That’s Down to Earth
Every day is Earth Day at Pizza Fusion! Pizza Fusion is a restaurant completely dedicated to sustainable resources, from building counter tops out of used bottle caps to recycled pizza boxes, it’s no surprise that they would dedicated an entire month to Saving the Earth. For the month of April, Pizza Fusion is having a recycling rewards program that is giving customers discounts for bringing back their pizza boxes to recycle them. For each customer that purchases one of their all-natural pizzas April 22, Pizza Fusion will plant a tree on behalf of AmericanForests.org
