Can Fast Food Be Sustainable? Lessons from Burgerville

Anyone who lives in the Pacific Northwest knows Burgerville.  Yes, it’s a burger joint with all the traditional trimmings you’d associate with fast food…french fries, hamburgers, drive-throughs, kids meals.  But Burgerville isn’t like any other fast food joint you’ve ever known.  Because they serve real food. Check it:

We use local, vegetarian-fed and antibiotic-free beef in our burgers, cage-free eggs in our breakfast items and our salads feature mixed greens with sustainable, local ingredients such as smoked salmon and Oregon hazelnuts.

That’s not all.  Ready?  Their menu changes based on the availability of seasonal ingredients.  Right now you’ll find a grilled Coho salmon sandwich, fried asparagus and a whole slew of strawberry goodness like smoothies, milkshakes, lemonade and desserts.  With a commitment to buying local, 71% of Burgerville’s food dollars are spent within the Pacific Northwest.

Oh, and did I mention that in 22 out of their 39 restaurants, there aren’t any garbage cans?  Customers are asked to sort their trash into “recycling”, “composting” and “trash/landfill” bins.  They also have “back of house” recycling/composting stations for things like cooking oil (all of it goes to produce biodiesel) and most of their packaging is compostable/recyclable.

Before you brush them off as some tree-hugging company, take a bite out of this statistic:  Burgerville announced their partnership with Food Alliance-certified Country Natural Beef in 2004.  Between 2004 and 2008, the company experienced double digit growth without opening any additional restaurants.

These were just a few of the factoids served up by Burgerville’s Director of Sustainability, Alison Dennis, who was gracious enough to chat with me about Burgerville’s commitment to sustainability.  You’ll find plenty more on the sustainability pages of their website.

From my conversation with Alison, here’s what Burgerville is doing right:

Staying True to Their Roots
Before Alison mentioned word one about all the impressive work Burgerville is doing in the sustainability front, she talked about Burgerville’s history and deep community roots.

Burgerville is a family-owned company, turning 50 next year.  We have a long history of community service and charitable giving and have always asked the question, ‘What does a good corporate citizen look like?’  It’s this question that has enabled us to evolve through the decades.  For us, the answer to this question is broader than just food.  It’s about being a leader in our community.

Starting with People
Burgerville takes a much broader definition of sustainability than the stereotypical “green” issues.  And it begins with their people.  Alison explains,

Burgerville is about growing leaders with the skills to make a difference in their families and in their communities.  We take care of our people.  We did an employee survey in 2005 and health care came back as the number one issue.  So now any employee that works over 20 hours a week for 6 months receives full medical, dental, vision coverage for $20/month.  In the first year of expanding the health care plan, we realized a 3% ROI.

Reaching Customers Where They Are
When I asked Alison if she felt like Burgerville had a role to play in educating their customers, she laughed and said,

I don’t really think anyone wants to go order a hamburger and get a lesson on sustainability.  We really avoid the term ‘education’.  But one of the huge benefits of being a fast-food company is that we reach all sorts of people on a daily basis from all walks of life.  We’re eminently approachable.  The entire point of what we’re doing is for people to feel welcome and to be engaged in the conversation about their food.  Make it OK to ask questions and continue the conversation.

We’re testing out a pilot program where nutritional information is printed on the back of the receipt based on your order.  We don’t think our customers should have to work so hard to find out basic information about their food.

A few weeks ago, we invited the ranchers from the Co-op that provides our beef to work in our restaurants.  Over the period of a few days, every restaurant had a rancher working the drive through, or behind the counter.  Our customers loved it.  Our employees loved it.  The ranchers loved it.  And that’s what we’re about.  Making the connection for people about where their food really comes from.

Being a Leader
It’s not enough for Burgerville to set a high bar for their own company.  They feel compelled to be a force behind raising the tide that will float all boats.  When I asked Alison what she was working on that most excited her, she shared,

Not every Burgerville is able to participate in our compost/recycle program due to limitations in local hauling infrastructure.  We’re part of a conversation with regional leaders about how to change this in Oregon and Washington.  The University of Oregon is also involved in helping us design a solution that can scale here regionally and then serve as a national model.  We’re all about finding ways for sustainable food systems to scale.

Going Above, Around and Beyond
One of the challenges Alison shared about their food standards involved availability of appropriate vendors.

It took 4 years of dialogue with Country National Beef to solidify our partnership with their Co-op.  We needed a certain volume of ground beef, but we also had to help source and negotiate other partners who would purchase the remaining cuts of meat.  Co-ops are ideal but there aren’t enough of them.  Sometimes we have to roll up our sleeves and help organize local farms to meet our volume requirements.  Burgerville alone can’t create a sustainable future for strawberry farmers.  But we can be part of that equation and bring like-minded buyers together.

So what else can we expect from Burgerville in the future?  Plenty.  They’re working on ways to better quantify and measure the impact they’re making for customers and on their own business metrics.  They continue to push for new compostable/recyclable packaging and plan to announce the newest of their accomplishments this year.  They’re addressing how their customers get to their locations and encouraging eco-friendly transportation options like biking.

One thing’s for sure:  this burger joint is taking a huge bite out of sustainability and redefining fast food as we know it today.