Opal's Goes Green

Not content with just owning one of the best collections of Scotch whisky in the U.S., Opal Divine's Michael Parker is going green. In a big way.

"I'm just an old hippie at heart," he says. "I was very into ecology when I was younger. When we got into business, trying to be green was cost-prohibitive. Now ecologically friendly ways to run your business are more available, and we're trying to make our restaurants some of the greenest around."

Parker is using a three-pronged approach: recycling, using biodegradable packaging for to-go orders, and using green energy. He's working with the Institution Recycling Net­work to recycle the most common restaurant debris, like glass, tin, cardboard, and aluminum containers. But he's most excited about figuring out what to do with all the leftover and unused vegetable trimmings. So now he's working on composting. "We think that of our 12 yards of waste per week, 60 to 70 percent is compostable," he says. To give you an idea of how big that is, imagine 1.5 million uncrushed cans of beer, and that's every week.

Opal's has moved to all biodegradable packaging. "We're using biomass packaging that is made from agricultural sources like sugar cane, corn, and potato starch," he says. "Unfortunately, we're paying double and triple what Styrofoam costs, but it means that anything our customers take home can be recycled or even composted."

His restaurants are also on a green-energy diet. This has actually paid off; sometimes doing right means making money. "We signed on with Austin Energy's GreenChoice a few years ago," he says. "It's mostly wind power. When you sign on with GreenChoice, you get locked into a specific rate, and instead of buying at the rates that are captive to oil prices, our utility bills are fixed, and the rates are locked in for 10 years." The deal is even better now that Austin Energy is locking rates for 15 years.

Add it all up, and the whole program still costs them money. But Parker doesn't care. "It is definitely an expense we pay extra for, but we think it's the right thing to do," he says. "It's part of the cure."