Describe your achievements in the Green Awards category you are being honored:

The Irregardless Café opened in 1975 as a vegetarian/vegan restaurant, focusing on healthy foods that feed the body and soul. Over the years we have added chicken and seafood to the menu, as well as local, grass-fed, antibiotic-free beef. Since opening, we have been committed to purchasing local foods from producers like Lindley Mills, Nooherooka Natural, and the farmer’s market. Today, approximately 25% of produce is organic, and 25% is purchased locally.

We’re working to reduce our food waste and conserve energy and water in our restaurant and catering businesses. We strive to be a leader as a green restaurant.

How did you first get involved with being green?

Since I was young, I have understood all life to be interdependent—the planet, our bodies, how we treat each other, and the community in which we live. These ideals have always inspired me to do the most I can to better people’s lives and the environment.

Aside from our ideals, being green is also a business decision for us—similar to our healthy menu and live music, our environmental stewardship attracts people. I believe that our sense of spirituality and ethics calls us to act on and live our beliefs, and I have been exploring this throughout our history.

What have you done within your organization to promote issues of sustainability?

We are constantly seeking new efforts to further sustainability initiatives. Long before the City required it, we implemented a progressive recycling program to help divert waste from the landfill.

In fact, a former employee Jon Bograd, left Irregardless and founded Pheonix Resources Recycling in 1989, a full service office recycling business. Irregardless has been their customer since the beginning.

We have renovated an existing building rather than new construction, and have pervious paving to reduce stormwater runoff. We have purchased energy and water efficient appliances, including dishwashers and low-flow toilets. A Knightdale farmer collects our kitchen scraps to feed to his hogs, helping us reduce our food waste.

The Irregardless became NC’s first non-smoking restaurant in 1984. All catering events use biodegradable, post-consumer recycled, chlorine-free disposable paper products.

What have your green contributions in the community been?

We have been supporting local farmers and sustainable agriculture for 35 years. Local musicians continue to perform nightly, as they have done since we opened. The Irregardless Café is a founding member of the Interfaith Food Shuttle and continues to regularly donate food to area homeless shelters.

We support economic development, especially around the Morgan Street area, and we started the West Morgan Landowners Association. We seek out vendors who provide the sustainably-focused products and services we need to continue our leadership in the community. The Irregardless is proud to be an authentic, homegrown restaurant with very green roots.