It’s not about us — it’s about you and your relationship with your bottom line and your environment. That being said…
Our mission is to provide a streamlined approach for restaurants to achieve sustainability goals, enhance profitability and harness a competitive advantage through our green certification process.
Our vision is to be the premier green restaurant certification system in the country, transforming the food industry through innovative and regenerative processes, which bring together the whole system, from farm to fork.
We are dedicated to helping make the world a thriving and regenerative place by transforming the restaurant industry. The purpose of Green Restaurant Strategies is to assist in the creation of new restaurants with a focus on sustainability as well as assist and drive existing, conventional restaurants to adopt green business practices. We have created an audit template and certification metrics to establish baselines, which help to determine a sustainability rating system. Through comprehensive marketing strategy, we are creating a consumer awareness of both the certification and need for restaurants to join the sustainable business movement while assisting in driving sales to GRS member restaurants. A key component of GRS services include access to educational materials for member restaurants that aids in boosting employee buy-in as well as decreasing environmental impact resulting in a greater profit margin.
The Team
Howard Cummins – Founder & CEO
Howard is committed to applying his knowledge of the restaurant business with his passion for creating sustainable restaurant environment. Howard is a seasoned restaurateur whose thirty-five years of experience include full-scale food and beverage services and operations. His background includes noted San Francisco establishments such as Le Colonial Restaurant, Elka Restaurant at the Miyako Hotel, Harry Denton’s Restaurant, Kimpton group properties, and the opening of Twenty Four at the San Francisco Giant’s Pac Bell Park. He has overseen over fifty openings and refreshed concept developments.
Howard’s experience ranges from advising on operations, opening schedules, budgets, wine lists, menus and staffing. Additionally, he works with troubled locations, to reverse negative cash flow situations and stabilizing day-to-day operations. Since early 2008, he has focused his efforts on sustainability as it pertains to the restaurant industry. He is very active in the Sustainability and Green community and has received an Executive Certificate in Sustainable Enterprise from the Dominican University of California School of Business and Leadership Sustainable Enterprise Green MBA. He is now bringing the best of both worlds which together assists clients to focused and effective problem solving for the ever-growing challenges of successful hospitality operations within a sustainable framework.
Rori Cowan – Director of Business Operations
A Los Angeles native, Rori Cowan graduated from California State University, Monterey Bay in 2006 with a B.S. in Earth Systems Science & Policy while specializing in marine and coastal ecology. During a break from academia, she found herself wearing many hats working in fashion, real estate, and childcare while developing a solid business foundation. In 2008 Rori began an interdisciplinary environmental science graduate program at the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara. Rori’s master thesis, a business plan outlining a bulk goods distribution system aimed at phasing out disposable packaging for flowable liquids and solids, was a finalist in the Technology Management Program’s New Venture Competition.
In 2010 Rori received her master’s in Environmental Science & Management, having specialized in corporate environmental management and eco-entrepreneurship in addition to a graduate certificate in management practices. This seemingly unconventional combination of experience and training has allowed Rori to have a unique perspective on environmental management, and gives her a strong business background with the ability to make innovative solutions work.
Ed Quevedo
The GRS team is enhanced by the addition of the Paladin Law Group through Edward Quevedo’s experience as the Chair of the Sustainability Practice Group and commitment to sustainable business. Ed has over 25 years of experience advising clients on domestic and international environmental and health & safety (EHS) law compliance and litigation matters, sustainability planning and program development, and strategic EHS program development and performance counseling, both as an attorney and consulting advisor.
Ed provides his clients with traditional EHS compliance counseling and international EHS auditing program development, implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) and Sustainability Management Systems (SMS), sustainable development strategy, and green building and sustainable master planning. He has also pioneered the implementation of Regenerative Management Systems (RMS), which promise to move organizations beyond sustainable development.
