How Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants Reduce Waste in Chicago

Growing up working in her father’s restaurants around Chicago, Kelly Clancy knew from an early age the importance of sustainable practices in the world of hospitality. “My dad was a small business owner, and making these efforts was just part of how we operated for cost savings,” she says. “There were very few single-use products, and we were always recycling — all of it was ingrained in me as a child.”

Clancy has spent the past 19 years with Lettuce Entertain You Restaurants, currently serving as managing partner and divisional supervisor for The Oakville Grill & Cellar, 167 Events, and RPM Restaurants. Though she had always been sustainability-minded at home and the venues, a weekend working the 2023 NASCAR Chicago Street Race served as a renewed call-to-action. “We were feeling the effects of the Canada wildfires — there was an orange haze throughout downtown, people were wearing masks, and it was difficult to breathe,” she recalls. “It was eye-opening for me — I just remember thinking, ‘We have to do more.”

Clancy contacted local composting company WasteNot to implement a composting program at the newly opened Oakville Grill & Cellar, and in the time since, has introduced the program to several of the group’s restaurants. Beyond composting, she has made efforts to do away with all single-use plastics, using only glass water bottles for catering and special events, metal tasting spoons for line check tastings, compostable straws, and reusable tote bags for carry-out and delivery orders. Several of their restaurants have also partnered with Costa Nova, a Portuguese plateware company specializing in sustainably made stoneware. All of it, Clancy hopes, serves the larger goal. “Anything we can do to keep as much as we’re able to out of the landfills will benefit us all,” she says. “If we can make even a small difference, that’s a win.”

Clancy recognizes that education is critical to the process. In addition to inviting the WasteNot team in for quarterly, all-staff training sessions, she facilitates separate sessions for each restaurant’s training teams, who then share these systems with newly hired employees. “WasteNot has been wonderful in coming out for pre-shift with our front- and back-of-house team, teaching us how to compost and what impact it has — and we incorporate these insights into our five-day onboarding process.”

A passion for these practices naturally lends itself to ongoing research, an inclination Clancy holds and a responsibility she assumes. “I try to read as much as I can, and I like to follow the James Beard Foundation’s sustainability efforts and the forums they hold,” she says. She also seeks out collaborations with like-minded, local entities, such as the Green Wedding Alliance — of which RPM Events is now an established vendor. The partnership entailed a nine-month vetting process that sought out eco-friendly implementations throughout their operations, such as LED electric systems, back-of-house automatic sensors, and mindful food prep (e.g. the team’s use of CNSRV DC:02, a prep sink water circulator that helps food reach intended temperatures in far less time than that of a wasteful and costly running tap).

“Hopefully we can teach people about why these practices matter and what the impact is, helping them to feel great about the work they're doing and giving them a sense of significance and gratification in the workplace,” says Clancy. “And maybe, it extends into their personal life, even a little bit.”

Clancy encountered such an example on Instagram recently, when she spotted the video post of a former employee who had since transitioned into a different hospitality role. “I saw her lift up a compost bucket, then share how she had learned all about composting when she worked with us at Lettuce,” says Clancy. “It made me so happy to see her still doing these things and in her own home.”

It was part of a vision fulfilled for Clancy, whose efforts in this area have always emphasized the power of one small act. 

“There are ways we all can contribute in our personal and professional lives, whether it’s cleaning up a park or helping to ensure places like the Greater Chicago Food Depository has more food access,” she says. “As restaurants, we are naturally a part of our communities — and I want us to be a great member of the community, doing our part to make our cities, nation, and world a better place.”