I am looking for grants for going green in the restaurant business?

Question

My partner and I are opening up a small restaurant in a rural area(pop.11,000) that is expected to boom over the next couple of years. We have composted and grown organically at home and want to carry this over to our restaurant. We will support local organic farmers, buy organic when at all possible. We will also be using biodegradable cleaning products, will not sell bottled water, and will do whatever else we can to help the enviroment. We are not going to be a tasteless health food hippy place but a high end, classy,quality restaurant. We have been told that there are grants available for going green. Anyone have info on this, or is grant monies just a hoax?

Answer 1

What state are you in?

PM me and I can give you information on a couple I know of.

Answer 2

Grants for going green are typically given to communities trying to go green, not usually for for-profit businesses like restaurants

Entergy Corporation offers an Environmental Stewardship Grant program where they give $350,000 to community-based projects that address energy efficiency and provide sustainable solutions to preserve the environment. The application ended March 10, though and again this is for a community effort http://www.entergy.com/our_community/env...

The Department of Energy will also give $200,000 grants to 12 cities that will be named Solar America Cities to install solar technologies. http://www.nbc5.com/goinggreen/15757189/...

But you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov - these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture. I have not seen any grant for a for profit for going green