Did you know the Park Café and Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar are Certified Green Restaurants®?

Since 1990, The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) has accredited thousands of restaurants for their environmentally conscious operations, using transparent, science-based certification standards. The GRA standards offer a way to measure each restaurant’s environmental accomplishments while providing the next steps they can take to increase their environmental sustainability.

“We strive to operate our restaurants in a way that minimizes our environmental impacts and creates a more sustainable future for both our customers and the planet,” said Bob Braun, Director of Food and Beverage, Assiniboine Park Conservancy. “The Park is pleased to offer sustainable and delicious dining options.”

To become a Certified Green Restaurant®, enough GreenPoints™ must be earned across the following categories: Energy, Water, Waste, Reusables & Disposables, Chemical & Pollution, Food, Building & Furnishing, Education & Transparency.

Park Café has taken 36 environmental steps to earn more than 145 GreenPoints™. Over 30% of their main dishes are vegetarian and the Park Café's green roof reduces summer energy use by 10-40%.

Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar has earned over 180 GreenPoints™ by taking 35 environmental steps. 100% of the lights in this restaurant are LEDs, which use up to 90% less energy than other bulbs. By providing a bottle filling station within The Leaf and not offering bottled water at Gather, we are helping to reduce the four billion pounds of plastic bottles in landfills each year.

The Park Café and Gather do not use any polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) products and have a recycling program and back-of-house composting that keeps as much as 30% of produced waste out of landfills. The restaurants also use herbs and greens grown here in the Park when possible and save their wine corks for animal enrichment at the Zoo.

Here at Assiniboine Park Conservancy, we define environmental sustainability as the responsible management of resources for the benefit of all living species, for present and future generations. We are committed to minimizing our environmental impact throughout our operations.

Learn more about Gather Craft Kitchen & Bar’s environmental steps here. 

Learn more about Park’s Café’s green strides here.