Should Pizza Go Green? Pizza Fusion, America’s Eco-Friendly Restaurant Chain, Opens San Diego’s First LEED Certified Restaurant.

Can restaurants make some green by going green? Rapidly expanding franchise, Pizza Fusion, is showing the industry that making sustainability the mission can pay off. Founded in 2006 by two Florida entrepreneurs, Pizza Fusion’s Saving the Earth, One Pizza At A Time message translates into 70 franchises sold in about a year, with 10 store openings and another 15 planned by year’s end.

First stop in California: San Diego. Then Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks, and Temecula.

Pizza Fusion takes a holistic approach to their eco-friendly practices, by delivering their organic menu in company owned hybrids, building only LEED certified restaurants, and offsetting 100% of their power consumption.

And it gets greener:

Pizza Fusion’s LEED certified restaurants reduce water waste by 40 percent and electricity consumption by 20 percent annually. Overall, a Pizza Fusion store uses 30 percent less energy than a typical pizza restaurant. (Restaurants in the U.S. are power-hungry; gobbling up some 33% of total consumption among retail businesses.)

The restaurants feature a number of unique, eco-efficient products, techniques and designs, including eliminating the use of water heaters and air heating units by recycling heat from their ovens to warm their water and the restaurants themselves. Food containers are made from 100 percent corn starch and utensils are made from 100 percent potatoes.

Other eco-elements:

Countertops made from 100% recycled detergent bottles
Bamboo flooring
30% recaptured industrial concrete
Ceiling panels made from 74% recycled aluminum cans and 24% post industrial metals
USG Gypsum Board made from pre-used drywall
Insulation made from recycled blue jeans,
Ceiling baffles made from recycled composite board
Low voltage and low heat lighting
Seat cushions made with soybean oil
Furniture made from reclaimed wood
100 percent post consumer toilet paper in their bathrooms.

And oh yes, the food:   Pizza Fusion restaurants “proudly serve up delicious, gourmet pizza in its purest form – untainted by artificial additives, like preservatives, growth hormones, pesticides, nitrates and trans fats (to name a few). While we’re famous for our pizza, our 75% organic menu features an eclectic variety of gourmet sandwiches, salads, desserts, beer and wine. Additionally, we proudly offer health conscious alternatives for our friends with selective diets and food allergies, such as our delicious gluten-free pizza, brownies and beer and our tasty vegan selections.”

They even give customers 25 cents off their meals for every pizza box returned for recycling.