News

Dunkin' Donuts launches green restaurant initiative

December 10, 2014

Dunkin’ Donuts has launched a new program called DD Green, a green building certification program designed to help franchisees build sustainable, energy-efficient restaurants.

In conjunction with the launch, the company celebrated the grand opening of a DD Green-certified restaurant in Long Beach, California, this week.

According to a news release, the program will provide a structured sustainability standard that will help Dunkin’ Donuts work towards the company’s target long-term efficiency and sustainability goals. For example:

• To be recognized as a DD Green restaurant, franchisees, construction managers and architects will follow a five-stage program during the planning, design and construction phases of store development. Those that have met the DD Green criteria will display a DD Green plaque in-store that notes the restaurant’s achievement in energy reduction and sustainable design.
• The five stages of the DD Green program include Site Development, Store Efficiency, Healthy Indoors, Sustainable Operations and Innovation and Community. Each stage of the DD Green strategies provides a brief synopsis of the strategy goal, specific educational information, guidance and metrics to achieve with the design and construction team.  
• Each stage focuses on securing sustainable strategies and practices for restaurants, including the mitigation of construction pollution and waste recycling, installation of energy-efficient LED light fixtures, mechanical units and water-saving plumbing fixtures, implementation of healthy environments with indoor air quality management and use of zero-VOC paints and a required sustainable building operations training for employees.

Dunkin’ Donuts' goal is to have 100 new DD Green-certified restaurants opened by the end of 2016.

"We are delighted to be able to launch the DD Green initiative, a green-building certification program that is customized for our various store formats and designed to enable us to meet our long-term environmental targets," President Paul Twohig said in a news release. "We are committed to building greener restaurants, and this new program is designed to reduce our overall environmental footprint and improve operating costs for our franchisees."

Before the launch, DD Green's program and certification model was reviewed by UL Environment, a global safety science company that audits and certifies sustainability programs.

Catherine Sheehy, program manager at UL Environment, said the DD Green certification program will – if implemented correctly – enable participating restaurants to achieve reductions in energy and water usage, as well as reduce waste and material sent to landfills.