By Nick White

Young’s Restaurant, a Durham staple has been around for 89 years; owned by only two families for nearly a century. This classic New England restaurant is a local hot spot frequented by students and locals alike. Although this diner may invoke that old-fashioned, home-town feel, owners Ken Young and his wife Cathy run a business that is also on the cutting edge of green, in constant movement forward to make their restaurant more sustainable. 

Over the last 40 years Young’s has been implementing sustainable business practices, learning and improving as time goes on. “We have been thinking green since 1980. At that time these things were just smart business practices but we’ve always had a passion for sustainability and now we’re really wrapping ourselves around it,” says Ken.

Since the 1980’s Young’s has had remote compressors running their large kitchen appliances. One summer the ice machine in the kitchen wasn’t making ice because it was too hot and the compressor, located in the kitchen, was itself adding to the heat. Ken called the company to find out what he could do. Relocate was the answer for both increased efficiency and more effective ice-making. Now the remote compressor is located in the basement, allowing the ice machine to make ice all day long, even during the hottest summer days, an approach that additionally helps the restaurant save energy on air conditioning.

What else makes Young’s green? Well for starters a strong emphasis on local products, composting, extensive recycling programs, energy efficient lighting, a newly renovated completely recycled floor, short-cycle dishwashers and energy efficient ventilation systems… just to name a few.

Ken looks at every aspect of his business for sustainability improvements, even going as far as cutting down the number of vendors he uses. Two months ago he switched from using six vendors to one. This means instead of six trucks pulling up to deliver items, there is only one. “And that truck runs on biodiesel” says Ken. Young’s decision to switch to Prime Food Group (PFG) was largely based on the number of organic and natural foods PFG offers. This switch has led Ken to start working on developing an all-natural menu. Because switching to all organic and natural foods will cost more, he hopes to offer the choice to customers. “The menu would offer customers the option of ordering organic food. We would give them the option because not everyone is going to want to put their money where their mouth is and pay more for organic food.”
This new idea is just one of many that Ken has been working with.

"I am always trying to learn more,” says Ken. “Being here on the UNH campus gives us a great chance to learn new ways to become more sustainable, we have a clientele that cares about these things and so we must as well.” He teaches all his employees to look for opportunities to green the restaurant. Employees know to turn off lights that are not being used, ensure they don’t leave faucets dripping, and that anything not being used gets unplugged or turned off until its needed. Three years ago Young’s teamed up with UNH to compost all its waste. Since that time Ken has gotten rid of his 6 yd dumpster and is now using a much smaller one because there is less waste to go to the landfill.
When the owners learned of the Green Alliance, a new green business union that certifies small local businesses green and works with them to help them become more sustainable, they jumped right in. “We felt that the GA would help us tell our customers about what we are already doing and provide us the guidance and support to go even further,” says Ken Young. Now students know of Young’s commitment to green restaurant practices by the Green Alliance sticker on the door and they can also use their Green Alliance membership card to access discounts on Young’s entire menu.

Indeed it is the food that makes Young a strong player as a green eatery. A major part of sustainability is buying local, so in an effort to support local farms, Young's purchases all of their eggs locally. As a breakfast spot they sell a lot of eggs so purchasing from local producers is an important piece of Young’s sustainability profile. Plans are in the works to add a map to their website showing where in New England their products are sourced from. “We buy about 40% of our products locally; this is something we really work hard on,” adds Ken.
Young’s has also recently transitioned all of their to-go containers and other in-house storing options to compostable products, and are partnering with the UNH compost facility in order to recycle all organic waste. The restaurant is moving towards becoming a "zero waste" operation complete with an extensive recycling program, composting, and increased utilization of plant-based products; steps that reduce energy use by 68%, in turn lowering the businesses overall carbon footprint.

Young’s has clearly worked long and hard on sustainable restauranteering, but this fact is not well known within the UNH community. A few student customers were asked whether they knew that Young’s prioritized sustainablity and most had no idea. Rory Cooper, a UNH senior responded, “Really? I always think of small diners like that being more old-fashioned, and not so innovative. I'm impressed. I feel like with some places you can tell they are big on the environment because they really advertise it, but I couldn't tell just by looking or going to Young's. It makes me realize I should just find out about places myself instead of waiting for them to put up a huge sign to tell me.”

The owners say they would rather spend time and energy on the sustainable practices themselves, than telling everyone just how green they are. “We are not interested in “green washing”, says Ken. “We don’t want to put on a “green act” but not really commit to practicing it and so we are taking it slowly and being humble about tooting our own horn.” His customers respect that. Emily Buchanan, a grad student at UNH found out that Young’s is working on becoming sustainable and challenged big businesses to follow suit. “Some of those things sound easy, like recycling or choosing things that use less energy. I don't understand why everyone just can't make those easy choices. I'm surprised they are buying locally and composting, though. That can be more expensive and some people think composting is gross. If a small business has the money to do these things, I don't understand why bigger business can't do even more!”

This is Young’s biggest challenge. As a small family run business, there is no extra money to implement anything that doesn’t make good business sense as well. This is what makes Young’s green practices so compelling, the combination of a small town eatery using big world ideas.

To learn more about Young’s visit www.youngsrestaurant.com
For more info on the Green Alliance visit www.greenalliance.biz