An article featuring Taranta and how in this economy, restaurant owners who are considering ways to make their establishments more eco-friendly may have apprehensions about the cost of such changes. Fortunately, a few restaurants around the country are proving that going green doesn’t necessarily mean less green in the pocket. Eco-friendly building materials can actually help improve the bottom line. Click here for the article

Taranta was invited to attend the Green Careers Forum at Brandeis University.  Christopher Titus, Taranta’s manager was part of the forum that consisted of four expert panel speakers who all are involved in sustainability or green energy initiatives.  The panel included a scientist working with the EPA, a former student working on federal programs to promote sustainability, a director of a non-profit and a CEO of a Green Energy development firm.  Students listened to brief talks about the current path of Sustainability and green careers.  After the panel presenters finished students were invited to sit down with representatives from Green Industry for a question and answer session.  Taranta was the only restaurant that was represented.  Students were especially interested how in how a small business like Taranta could go Green on their own and how we fit in with the myriad of other industries represented.

March 21 to March 28, Chef Jose Duarte will be joining a group of travelers heading to Peru. The trip is organized by Gourmet Consulting Group and it will be the first exclusive high end Gourmet Adventure with an Eco-Friendly set. The group will be visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu, as a part of the Carbon Offsetting program that the company has established a fund will be created to support a renewable energy project in the Andean Region, a Carbon offset of $6 per passenger  for the air portion used from Lima to Cusco will fund the project led by Casa Ecologica del Cusco, our tour operator in Cusco and Lima. Most of the ingredients used by locals chefs in the Cusco area will be organic and sustainable, produced by cooperatives led by Casa Ecologica. We intend not to purchase any small bottled water as we discover that only 20% of plastic bottles are recycled in Peru and they end land filled. We are providing aluminum refillable bottles and will fill from a large purified water container. All the disposable products used will be PLA and compostable, all biodegradable material will be turn into compost. Casa Andina, our selected hotel and the Private Collection brand has agreed not to place plastic bottles of water in the rooms. Hopefully we will quantify the effect of not buying plastic bottles and minimize waste and greatly contribute to the environment. All printed material made of 100% recycled paper and natural inks. The trip will repeat every year, and it has a limited space of 12 participants.

Article featuring the use of our cooking oil to power our cars. Featured in Gas 2.0 Click here to read the article

Just installed our own bottling and carbonation system for water, a very eco friendly alternative to bottled water with a carbon footprint. We will be filling and reusing our own bottles, this will reduce our storage space, less boxes being driven and less bottles to recycle. The flavor is excellent and we are continuing our funding program by donating $1 for each bottle sold to the City of Boston Green Energy Fund. We will also feature an aluminum portable bottle in our Peruvian Culinary Adventure to in March 2009 courtesy of Natura Water.

An article written by Devra First, food Editor from the Boston Globe that talks about how Boston restaurants think locally and act innovatively to reduce their environmental impact. Click here to link to the article

An article featuring Chef Jose Duarte and the green effect of having an eco-friendly restaurant. Click here to read the article on CNBC

>коли под наемave ordered the Lamp Tracker VaporLok Compact Recycling Container from Waste Management specially designed to recycle our CFL nad flourescent lamps, as you probably know those convenient little energy savers contain mercury and need to be properly disposed. Not many people are aware of the need of proper recycling of the Compact Flourescent Lights, instead of going in the regular garbage they must be taken to a recycling facility. We have a large box just for non working CFL’s. We have offered all our employees free CFL disposal, they can bring it to us and we will fill the container and ship it to Waste Management.

A couple of weeks ago I was a guest speaker at Williams College in Williamstown MA, I was invited to present my experiences “going green” as well as demonstrate some culinary techniques. Williams college Dinning services is committed to a sustainable future, they buy most of the products locally, have set in place a composting system and recycle most of their waste. They use PLA cups and many other eco friendly disposable materials. I visited a dairy farm that makes a really good cheese called TOBASI, Cricket Creek Farm, then met with one of the most passionated farmers I have ever met, Bill Stinson, he grows incredible cherry tomatoes, haricot verts, heirlum, etc etc. Williams college sorts most of the produce from Bill. I did a two hour cooking demonstration the next day with Bill’s products, a 4 course menu!. In the afternoon I presented all the “Eco Friendly” practiques we adopted at Taranta and how they could be implemented at a large scale (College – University). The experience was fascinating as I was a motivational agent for others to change their minds towards benefiting the environment.

Featured on VOA (Voice of America) News agency, an article on how more restaurants are becoming Eco-friendly. Taranta is featured as well as other local restaurants.