Restaurant's early success shows that green initiatives can lead to 'buycotting' by customers

It is not always easy, or cost effective, to be green.

But local restaurateur Bob Desautels has gone the extra mile to be as environmentally and socially conscious as possible at his four restaurants, most notably at Miijidaa, the newest of the four located on Quebec Street in Downtown Guelph.

And it seems to be working.

Miijidaa is celebrating its second anniversary and Desautels said that revenue is up almost 29 per cent over year one, something he said is very rare in the restaurant business.

“That’s really unusual. The normal trend in our business is that the first year is your honeymoon period, second year always goes down, then you spend the third year trying to get back to where you were in year one and growing slowly from there.”

A Montreal native and University of Guelph grad whose past includes stints as a professional golfer and instructor at the U of G’s College of Business and Economics, Desautels said he has never had a business grow this much in one year.

“I sincerely believe that we’re more profitable by spending the extra money (to be green),” he said. “I know for a fact that some people come into restaurants because of our values. It feels good to come into one of our restaurants because I know we’re making a difference.”

This isn’t about throwing some organic kale on the menu and locally sourcing your weekly steak special.

Desautels restaurants­ have donated $200,000 to the Grand River Conservation Authority’s foundation over the years, local artists sell their works in his restaurants and donate 20 per cent of the sale to the GRCF, 80 per cent of the food served in his restaurants comes from Ontario and the company buys carbon offsets through Anwaatin, an indigenous carbon offset program.

On a micro level, green initiatives include doing away with plastic straws at Miijidaa in favour of reusable stainless-steel ones (takeout straws are biodegradable) and even planting a small pollination garden on the building’s rooftop.

“For the month of July we partnered with Royal City Brewery and for every pint people purchased we gave out a package of seeds that they could plant,” adds Miijidaa managing partner Fountain Santos, highlighting some of the smaller green initiatives that highlight the depth of commitment the business has to being as environmentally conscious as it can.

“We’re keeping the future in mind,” Fountain said. “How are we going to leave the earth when we’re not here?”

Desautels said it is important to reflect his own core values in his businesses because “otherwise I don’t think I’d be in business."

On a social level, Desautels said that at The Woolwich Arrow, through tip sharing, they have managed to make sure every employee is making at least the minimum living wage of $16.50 an hour and he wants to see that at his other restaurants.

Good food and beverages, Desautels said, is just a “ticket to get into the game” these days.

“The consumer is much more sophisticated these days,” he said, “they are wanting and looking for more.”

Desautels’ The Neighbourhood Group of Companies also owns the venerable Woolwich Arrow downtown and Borealis Grille and Bar locations in Guelph and Kitchener.

He doesn’t mince words when it comes to discussing the shortcomings of his own generation when it comes to the environment.

“I want to support children’s education about the environment because I think the Boomer generation is the largely-failed generation because the environment has not been improved under their watch and the divide between the rich and poor has got larger in North America,” said Desautels, who is a founding member of the Green Party of Canada.

“The older I get, the more committed I get,” Desautels said. “That’s why I’m opposite from all the Boomers. The Boomers went from being hippies to becoming the ‘me’ generation: more concerned with their BMWs and their investments than the planet. That’s my cynical take on it.”

But while he is happy to discuss environmental awareness and responsibility at length across the table, he is hesitant to use it as a marketing ploy.

“You have to be careful with preaching to people,” he said. “I don’t want to be preachy.”

Instead he said Miijidaa benefits from “buycotting,” a term that means the opposite of boycotting.

Customers educate themselves on where they spend their money and chose places that reflect the social and environmental values they believe in and want to support.

Being green also helps attract a certain type of employee, he said, which also benefits the company.

“My whole goal is that I don’t want to be accused of green washing,” he said, referring to the practice of using token environmental initiatives as a marketing ploy.

“I want to have a company that when somebody challenges us, and digs deeper, they’ll actually find more green things that we forgot to tell them about.

“I want to have a company that the more you dig into what we’re doing, the more you’re surprised.”

Desautels is quick to quote, be it Ghandi or an author he recently read. He paraphrases a Confucious quote, that the “the man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones”

“The problem is sustainability is a mountain,” he said. “But if our company is out there moving stones a little bit, then we’re taking the mountain down.”