Missouri Botanical Garden

Food is served on durable, colorful plates with real silverware.
Sassafras staff recycle all plastic, steel, aluminum, glass and plastic containers; all office paper and all cardboard; and all cooking grease.
Guests and staff can use recycling bins conveniently placed around the outdoor dining terrace and at the restaurant exit. Recycling bins are also prominently located throughout the Garden grounds.
All posters, table-tent inserts, and office communications are printed on 100% post-consumer recycled content paper stock.
Menus are printed on paper containing 50% post-consumer recycled content paper and 50% sugar cane fiber, an agricultural by-product fiber.
Napkins are chlorine-free 100% post-consumer recycled content paper.
Hot cups are chlorine-free 10% post-consumer recycled content paper.
No Styrofoam products are used in the café, a commitment to reduce consumption of petroleum-based goods.
Take-out boxes are made from 100% recycled paper with 35% post-consumer content. When emptied, these boxes can be deposited in the Garden's recycling bins.
Sassafras patrons are encouraged to "think before you take" at self-service condiment and beverage lid stations.
Restroom janitorial paper products have 100% recycled content, with post-consumer content of products ranging from 40 to 75%.

Conserving Energy – Water – Other Materials

Sassafras indoor dining areas are flooded with daylight through a large skylight in the center of the café and energy efficient tinted-glass windows along the entire south wall. Daylight also lights the ordering queue area through a window to the Garden Gate Shop, which has its own large skylight.
Accent lamps use energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Energy efficiency measures implemented in Garden buildings, including recent upgrades to the Ridgway Center where the Sassafras café is located, have decreased energy consumption by 22%, while overall building area has increased by 11%.
Sustainable materials were used in a recent renovation of the Sassafras dining room, including tabletops and wall dividers surfaced with a material made from post-consumer recycled paper and alfalfa, low-VOC paints, and wall panels accented with rapidly renewable cork.
Hand washing sinks in the kitchen are fitted with aerators that mix air pressure with water, reducing water flow to 0.5 gallons per minute (gpm) while maintaining a standard feel of pressure.
The spray valve on the kitchen dishwashing machine is fitted with an aerator that reduces water consumption from a standard 5 gpm to 1.2 gpm, without sacrificing pressure needed to efficiently pre-rinse dishes.

Safeguarding Health for People and Planet

Sassafras serves only Fair Trade™ certified coffees and teas, ensuring that growers of these products are paid fair wages in healthy working conditions.
Hand soap used in the restroom is Green Seal™ certified, dispensed from auto-portion dispensers which minimize product waste and clean-up.
Restroom cleaning products are all Green Seal™ certified, to safeguard health of our employees and guests.

Growing Our Knowledge Base – Promoting Sustainability

"Plants – People – Planet" signs posted in the café and around the Ridgway Visitor Center offer points of awareness to visitors and staff about the Garden's commitments to sustainable practices and ways everyone can reduce our impact on Earth's resources.
Learn more! Visit www.mobot.org to watch our progress as we grow greener, and discover EarthWays Center, our "urban green house," at www.earthwayscenter.org.

The Missouri Botanical Garden's mission is "to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life." Today, 151 years after opening, the Missouri Botanical Garden is a National Historic Landmark and a center for science and conservation, education and horticultural display.

3/2010