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Not the same old drive-thru

The meat is raised naturally; the packaging is recycled; the ovens use renewable power. New green fast-food chains are serving up burgers and fries to feel good about.

4) TAKE CARE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES

The restaurant industry is the largest employer in the U.S. after the federal government, according to the National Restaurant Association. A large portion of these workers is employed by fast-food restaurants. Many of the new fast-food chains pride themselves on better employee relations than those typically encountered in the conventional fast-food world.

Lazar of Pizza Fusion says he and his partners spent hours with about 100 workers at Starbucks to learn more about those famously content employees. Starbucks, where employees are called "store partners," ranks No. 7 on Fortune magazine's current "100 Best Places to Work" list because of programs like sponsored gym memberships, job sharing, health-care coverage (to which employees contribute), domestic partner benefits and more than 200 hours of on-the-job training each year.

Pizza Fusion took some of those lessons home. The company pays 100 percent of employees' health-insurance premiums and offers discount gym memberships. "We all went rock climbing at an indoor gym last week. We like to do fun stuff with our workers," says Lazar.

Deb Sellers reports that employee turnover at Sellers Markets is well below the industry average. "All of our employees are stockholders," she says, adding that about 40 percent of the original employees hired in 2005 are still on staff. Tom Mears says some Burgerville customers tell him they're loyal because they know the company provides an affordable health-insurance plan to employees.

Passion matters too. "A lot of these restaurants are following the example of the Apple stores," says Jerry Newman, distinguished professor and chair of the department of organization and human resources in the School of Management at the State University of New York in Buffalo. "Apple hires people with a passion for Apple products. Prospective customers walk into the stores and see that these are believers. It provides a competitive advantage," says Newman, who is also the author of My Secret Life on the McJob, which he wrote after covertly obtaining counter jobs at McDonald's, Burger King and other chains.

Newman adds that many of the employees at the new fast-food places are similarly dedicated to environmental causes and organic food. He suspects many of these places select employees who are sympathetic to the green, sustainable, healthy-food cause.

Michael Oshman, executive director and founder of the Green Restaurant Association, says he recently had a call from a restaurant employee about introducing some green initiatives where she worked. At the end of the conversation, she added she'd happily jump ship to work at a greener, more environmentally friendly restaurant if the opportunity arose. It's not just company employees who benefit from greener initiatives at the new fast-food places. According to Chris Arnold, each time Chipotle opens a restaurant, Niman can add a family ranch to its operation. "So we help create opportunities for family farmers," he says.

5) TAKE CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Brenden Sachs and his buddies are big fans of the milkshakes at Burgerville, and he can describe the blackberry and marionberry shakes in great detail. "The shakes are fantastic because they actually contain real berries, unlike most restaurants where the shakes obviously consist of a powdered mix and some fruit syrup. And the berries are always in season, so the shakes are never tart," he enthuses.

But Sachs says he had "no idea at all" that the chain is exceedingly green. Burgerville is at the forefront of the greening of fast food. "Portland General Electric approached us for help in pushing wind power," says Mears. "So we pay a slight premium, about 10 percent more than a normal utility bill, to support growth of windmills in this area."

The extra costs aren't all passed on to customers. The Burgerville utility bill may be offset by other initiatives. By recycling cooking oil instead of paying to have it hauled away, for example, Burgerville saves money. And burgers are modestly priced here, ranging from $1.19 to $4.79, in the same ballpark as those at McDonald's.

Most of Burgerville's customers aren't fully aware of the company's environmental initiatives, which include composting and recycling at each store, converting used trans-fat-free cooking oil to biodiesel and supporting local farmers and ranchers who adhere to sustainable production methods.

In fact, the need for green is particularly acute in the fast-food sphere. The restaurant industry overall is the largest consumer of electricity in the American retail sector. Fast-food packaging accounts for an estimated 20 percent of litter in the U.S. The city of Oakland, California, forces local restaurants to help pick up the tab for litter removal. In Taipei, Taiwan, fast-food restaurants are required to recycle, and customers are asked to separate their waste into four categories: leftover food, recyclable material, regular waste and liquids. Restaurants that don't comply face stiff cash fines.

The non-profit U.S. Green Restaurant Association, headquartered in Massachusetts, was founded to help restaurants meet the green challenge. Businesses often save money in the process. "We define for restaurants what's green and what's not," says Oshman. "We maintain the nation's largest database of environmental solutions for restaurants."

He adds that the GRA can help restaurant owners find recycled, tree-free, biodegradable and organic products and non-toxic cleaning and chemical products. Restaurants that consistently adhere to the association's 11-point plan become certified green restaurants .

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