Seems like every business claims to be green these days, but when it comes to being a private chef and/or a caterer, there are clear ways to lessen the negative environmental impact of what and how we eat food.

It all begins with the food itself. Local organic fruits and vegetables are the greenest choice. If one chooses animal proteins, there are now a variety of designations to tell cooks and consumers what’s in their food as well as how chickens, cows, lamb or pigs have been treated during their life times. Free-range organic meats raised in Marin County are my most frequent choice. Fish is becoming a growing problem, however, with the cancellation of the salmon season on the West Coast last year a troubling sign of things to come. I’ve been paying much more attention to this issue lately, often steering my clients to fish or seafood choices that are seasonal and sustainable.

Many websites publish lists of “sustainable” fisheries, but be careful about national guides, as regional impacts upon fish stocks may vary. Check out www.seafoodchoices.org for specific recommendations for businesses. Other good sites for information are www.eartheasy.com/eat_sustainable_seafoods.html and a pocket Seafood Watch guide available at: www.montereybayaquarium.org.

After the selection of seasonal local food, the next biggest environmental impact is waste. Luckily, a host of alternative high performance products are now available for disposal plates, utensils and napkins. Feel free to email me with any questions about which of these products I prefer. Organic wastes should be composted. The energy impacts of our food choices can also be big, especially if the organic food you buy was grown in China or other faraway places. If our economy was working properly, it would the local, seasonal food that would be the most cost effective, but we’ve got a long ways to go to get there!

Your kitchen itself represents many opportunities to go green with more efficient lighting and other energy efficient appliances. Induction ovens not only use less energy, but improve a cook’s ability to fine-tune the taste and texture of food.

And then there is the travel to shop to get the food and then get finished meals from the kitchen to your wedding or private party. If I have to travel from Stinson Beach to San Francisco, the Napa Valley or perhaps even Oakland, I now purchase “offsets” to mitigate the impacts of the emissions from my motor vehicle. I’ve decided to go with Terra Pass, and you can find out more about their options at the following website: www.terrapass.com.

Ultimately, I hope to switch to an all-renewable energy system with a hybrid plug-in vehicle recharging itself via solar panels and or a small wind turbine. My local heroes in this regard include the Stubbs Winery near Petaluma, which is off-the-grid and powered completely by the sun and wind. Devil’s Gulch Ranch derives more than half of its energy from a wind turbine, and the Straus Dairy near Marshall relies upon methane captured from cow manure to power its entire operations. Choosing products from these green energy vendors is another way to go green when it comes to catering.

There’s always room for improvement, and the process of going green is a number of incremental steps. The corporate world is catching on to this issue, with Microsoft in the lead.

Of course, the other way to be green as a catering company is to support events dealing with green causes. That’s why I’m proud to have been involved with food service for events such as “Stinson Solar Sunday,” the Green Note Festival at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, and the annual retreats for the Marin Conservation League’s Board of Directors at the Red Barn in Point Reyes Station.